New Delhi:
Rape convict Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s quantum of punishment in the Unnao case will be pronounced on December 20. The Tis Hazari Court on Tuesday adjourned the arguments on quantum of punishment for December 20 and also sought the copy of affidavit of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar filed during 2017 in the Election Commission. The development came a day after Sengar, the expelled BJP leader, was found guilty in Unnao rape case. District and session Judge Dharmesh Sharma announced the verdict. Delhi’s Tis Hazari court convicted Sengar under the POCSO Act.
The CBI had concluded its arguments and recording of statements of defence witnesses was completed in in-camera proceedings on December 2. The case was heard on a day-to-day basis from August 5 after Supreme Court directed to transfer the case to Delhi from a court in Lucknow. Sengar was expelled from the BJP in August 2019. The court had on August 9 framed charges against the MLA and Singh under Sections 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping or inducing a woman to compel for marriage), 376 (rape) and other relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Convicting 53-year-old Sengar under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court said the Central Bureau of Investigation proved that the victim was a minor and he was rightly prosecuted under the special law.
"I found her statement truthful and unblemished that she was sexually assaulted. She was under threat, worried. She is a village girl, not from cosmopolitan educated area... Sengar was powerful person. So she took her time..," the judge said while reading out the verdict.
When the judge started pronouncing the verdict, co-accused Shashi Singh fainted. The court noted that after the victim wrote letter to the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several criminal cases were filed against her family and "imprints of Sengar" were visible in them.
In July 28 this year, the car of the woman who had accused Sengar was hit by a truck and she was severely injured. The woman's two aunts were killed in the accident and her family had alleged foul play. Her father was allegedly framed in an illegal arms case and arrested on April 3, 2018.
He died while in judicial custody a few days later, on April 9. The local court here has framed murder and other charges against the MLA, his brother Atul and nine others in the case. The apex court had on August 1 transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court in Uttar Pradesh to the court in Delhi with directions to hold trial on daily basis and completing it within 45-days.
During the trial in the rape case which was held in-camera, thirteen prosecution witnesses and nine defence witnesses were examined. A special court was also held at AIIMS hospital here to record the statement of the rape survivor, who was admitted there after she was air-lifted from a hospital in Lucknow.
The woman and her family is provided CRPF security as per the apex court's orders. They have now been shifted to a rented accommodation in the national capital with the assistance of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
