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Delhi high court directs Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s brother to surrender
The Central Bureau of Investigation’s counsel submitted that Jaideep Sengar relied upon fabricated documents to support his plea
The Delhi high court on Friday directed Jaideep Sengar, brother of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar, to surrender by Saturday in the case related to the custodial death of the father of the Unnao rape victim.
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja passed the direction while hearing Jaideep Sengar’s application seeking suspension of his sentence for a further three months as he suffers from relapsed oral cancer.
The court noted that he was initially granted interim bail in July 2024 for two months, which was last extended until May 2025. Thereafter, the matter was listed on five occasions, but the interim relief was not extended.
The Central Bureau of Investigation’s counsel submitted that Jaideep Sengar relied upon fabricated documents to support his plea. He did not surrender even as the court did not extend his interim bail.
Jaideep Sengar’s lawyer argued that the interim relief was automatically extended as the applications seeking extension were adjourned.
The court observed that the applications did not pertain to a civil proceeding where an interim order could be presumed to continue automatically. It said he was obligated to surrender in the absence of any written extension of bail.
“There is no question of your presuming that the interim order was extended. You were told that you had to surrender… law is equal for all….Please comply with the law,” the court said. “Surrender, and that will be in your interest...” The lawyer said that his client would surrender on Saturday.
Jaideep Sengar has appealed against a lower court’s March 2020 order, convicting him, his brother and policemen Ashok Singh Bhadauria and KP Singh for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304), criminal conspiracy (120B), wrongful restraint (341), voluntarily causing hurt (323) and of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. They were awarded 10-year sentences.
Jaideep Sengar was convicted for being part of the group that assaulted the victim’s father in 2018, when the former had gone with his co-workers in Unnao to attend a hearing in the rape case. The police arrested the father for allegedly possessing illegal arms, and he later succumbed to multiple injuries suffered in police custody.
