New Delhi: Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar will remain in jail for his entire life for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017, a Delhi court said Friday while sentencing him for life.
District Judge Dharmesh Sharma also imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh in the case and it has to be paid within a month.
“This court does not find any mitigating circumstance, Sengar was public servant and betrayed people’s faith,” the judge said while declining the plea for lenient approach in sentencing him. The conduct of 53-year-old Sengar was to intimidate the rape survivor, the court said.
It also directed that the rape survivor be paid an additional Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the mother of the victim.
Besides, the court directed the CBI to continue assessing threat perception to the life and security of the survivor and her family members every three months.
It said they will continue to reside in rented accommodation made available by Delhi Commission for Women for one more year and directed the UP government to pay Rs 15,000 per month for the rent.
The court had Monday convicted Sengar for rape under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act for offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child after holding the victim to be a minor in 2017.
The court had said the victim’s testimony was ‘truthful and unblemished’ against a ‘powerful person’.
Convicting Sengar, under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court said the CBI proved that the victim was a minor and he was rightly prosecuted under the special law.
The court had noted that it was proved by the prosecution that the movement of Sengar on the fateful day was not in sync with the movements of his three mobile SIM cards operating on his two mobile phones.
In a separate case, the same woman was allegedly gangraped later by three other persons June 11, 2017 in Unnao. The trial is yet to commence in that case.
The court had found that the delay of two months and 10 days in reporting the crime of rape to the police was satisfactorily explained by the survivor.
The trial in the other four cases – framing of the rape survivor’s father in an illegal firearms case, his death in judicial custody, conspiracy of Sengar with others in the accident case and the separate gangrape case of the survivor by three others – are going on in the court.
After the announcement of the verdict Sengar broke down in the courtroom at Tis Hazari District Court complex. He was found crying along with his daughter and sister. The MLA was also seen crying after the judge had held him guilty Monday.
Chronology of events in Unnao rape case
June 4, 2017: The 17-year-old girl is allegedly raped by BJP MLA Sengar
April 3, 2018: Rape survivor’s father beaten up and arrested allegedly at the behest of Sengar and 10 others
April 8: Rape survivor tries to immolate herself outside UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence, alleging police inaction
April 9: Rape survivor’s father dies in custody
April 10: Allahabad High Court transfers rape case to CBI
April 13: Sengar arrested
July 11: CBI files chargesheet in rape case
July 17, 2019: Rape survivor, her family write letter to CJI Ranjan Gogoi, expressing threat and danger to their lives allegedly from Sengar and his men
July 28: Over-speeding truck rams into a car in which rape survivor, her family and lawyer were travelling. Two of her aunts killed, survivor and advocate critically injured
Jul 29: FIR registered at the Gurubuxganj police station in Raebareli against Sengar and nine others in connection with the road accident
July 30: Rape survivor’s letter to CJI becomes public
July 31: Supreme Court takes cognisance of the letter, seeks report from its secretary general on the delay in placing it before the bench
August 1: SC transfers five cases related to the rape case to Delhi, directs the trial court to complete the trial in 45 days.
August 5: Day-to-day trial commences at the Tis Hazari court
Rape survivor airlifted to Trauma Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi from King George’s Medical College in Lucknow
August 9: Court frames charge against Sengar and female co-accused Shashi Singh in the rape case.
September 11: Special temporary court set up at AIIMS to record the statement of the rape survivor
September 25: Rape survivor discharged from AIIMS
Dec 6: Rape survivor shifts to rented accommodation in Delhi arranged by the Delhi Commission for Women
December 10: Court reserves judgment
December 16: Delhi court convicts Sengar for raping minor girl. Co-accused Shashi Singh acquitted
December 20: Sengar sentenced to life imprisonment by court, a fine of Rs 25 lakh imposed
PTI