Expelled BJP MLA Sengar convicted in Unnao rape case

A Delhi court on Monday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, saying the rape survivor’s testimony was “truthful and unblemished” against a “powerful person”.

It convicted Sengar for raping a woman in 2017 when she was a minor under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act, under sections including those dealing with penetrative sexual assault against a child by a public servant.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, however, acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges.

The court will hear arguments on the quantum of sentence on Tuesday (December 17). The offences entail a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The court 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.

The investigation in the 2017 Unnao rape case suffered from a “patriarchal approach” and “manifests the multitude of restrictions and taboo within which many women in rural areas are brought up, grow and survive,” the court said.

The court noted that “somewhere, investigation in the instant case has not been fair qua victim of the crime and her family members.”

“The instant case manifests the multitude of restrictions and taboo within which many women in rural areas are brought up, grow and survive. It epitomises the fear ingrained in the minds of young girls in the countryside or elsewhere against reporting issues of sexual assault by powerful persons,” the judge said.

“In my considered opinion, this investigation has suffered from patriarchal approach or inherent outlook to brush the issues of sexual violence against children under the carpet apart from exhibiting lack of sensitivity and humane approach,” he said.

Observing that the investigation in the case does not appear to have been fair to the survivor of the crime and her family members, the court held that the investigation has not been conducted by a woman officer as mandated by section 24 of the POCSO Act.

The judge noted that successive statements of the survivor had been recorded by calling her at the CBI office “without bothering for the kind of harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs to a victim of sexual assault in such case”.

Referring to the POCSO, the court said there was “nothing wrong” with the law, but its ineffective implementation on the ground and lack of human approach of officers concerned led to a situation where justice was delayed.

It said the CBI itself was not following the manual relating to investigation and prosecution.

Sengar’s counsel said he will challenge the trial court verdict before the Delhi High Court.

The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor.
The court has also framed charges against co-accused Shashi Singh in the case.

On July 28, 2019, the car of the rape survivor 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.

Sengar, a four-time BJP MLA from UP’s Bangermau, was expelled from the party in August 2019.

The trial in the other four cases — framing of the rape survivor’s father in illegal firearms case and his death in judicial custody, the conspiracy of Sengar with others in the accident case and a separate case of gang rape of the rape survivor by three others — is going on in the court.

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 sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The trial in the high profile case was held in-camera after the Supreme Court transferred the matter from Unnao to the national capital.