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‘Unleashed a tirade’: Judge convicts MLA Kuldeep Sengar for rape; he breaks down
Sengar, 53, a four-time legislator who is also accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy against the survivor’s family and causing them harm, was convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
A Delhi court on Monday convicted expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar for abducting and raping a minor girl in 2017, pronouncing judgment in a sensational case that triggered nationwide protests.
Reading out his order, district judge Dharmesh Sharma noted that the testimony of the rape survivor, who is now 19 years old, was “truthful and unblemished” against a “powerful person”.
“She was under threat, worried. She is a village girl, not from cosmopolitan educated area...Sengar was a powerful person. So she took her time...,” the judge said.
WATCH | Unnao rape case: MLA Kuldeep Sengar convicted by Delhi court; CBI pulled up
Sengar, 53, a four-time legislator who is also accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy against the survivor’s family and causing them harm, was convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The court will hear arguments on the quantum of sentence on Tuesday. Sengar’s offences can invite a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
“A tirade was unleashed upon the girl and her family members... where imprints of the accused Sengar were quite visible,” the judge said. Sengar, once a powerful lawmaker, was in tears in the court.
The judge added that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) proved that the survivor was a minor and that Sengar was rightly prosecuted under the Pocso Act.
“The instant case manifests the multitudes of restrictions and taboos within which many women in the rural areas are brought up, grow and survive. It epitomises the fear ingrained in the mind of young girl in the countryside or elsewhere against reporting issues of sexual assault by powerful adults,” the judge said in the order.
The judge also pulled up CBI, saying the investigation “suffered from patriarchal approach or inherent outlook to brush the issues of sexual violence against the children under the carpet”.
“It appears that somewhere the investigation in the instant case has not been fair to the victim of crime and her family members. The investigation has not been conducted by a woman officer... and successive statements of the victim girl 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,” the judge said.
The judge also questioned CBI over the delay in the filing of a charge sheet in a related case. “The CBI has not explained the fact that when the investigation in the alleged kidnapping, illegal confinement and gang rape of the victim in another FIR had been taken over by them on April 13, 2018…..what prevented the CBI from not filing the charge sheet/final report without any further delay and it was filed belatedly October 3, 2019 after almost a year…”
Judge Sharma acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh, who allegedly took the survivor to Sengar on the pretext of helping her get a job. Moments before that, Singh fainted in the court as the judge started pronouncing the order.
“Her health is improving gradually. She is desperately waiting him to be punished,” the survivor’s sister said. “We lost our father and aunts during the battle for justice. This man should not be allowed to roam free...”
According to the family, Sengar raped the survivor in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao on June 4, 2017. In April 2018, her father was beaten up by some people, and allegedly framed and arrested in an arms case. On April 8 that year, the survivor attempted self-immolation outside chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence, alleging police inaction in the rape case and demanding a first information report (FIR) against Sengar. The next day, her father died in custody , allegedly due to his injuries.
In the wake of widespread outrage, the Allahabad high court transferred the rape case to CBI, which arrested Sengar on April 10.
In July, the agency filed a charge sheet in the rape case. Her family wrote to the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in mid-July, saying they were under threat from Sengar and his accomplices. On July 28, a truck rammed a car in which the survivor, her family, and their lawyer were travelling on July 28. Two of the survivor’s aunts were killed in the incident in Rae Bareli, while she and her advocate sustained serious injuries. An FIR was filed the next day, and it booked Sengar and over a dozen others for murder and attempt to murder. Sengar was expelled from the BJP in August.
The Supreme Court took cognisance of the victim’s letter, transferred the matter to Delhi, and directed the court to complete trial in 45 days. The day-to-day trial began at Tis Hazari court on August 5. After undergoing treatment at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the survivor was shifted to a rented accommodation in the Capital with help from the Delhi Commission for Women.
The trial was held in-camera, and a special court was held at AIIMS on September 11, 12 and 13 to record the statement of the survivor, who was admitted there.
Sengar’s lawyer, advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, said he would appeal against the judgment in a high court. Advocate Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, counsel for the survivor, said it was “indeed the victory of justice”.
On August 9, the court framed charges against Sengar and Singh for criminal conspiracy, abduction, rape under the Indian Penal Code, and other relevant sections of the Pocso Act.
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 by Sengar and others in the accident case, and gang rape by three other men — are going on in the same trial court in Delhi.
Welcoming the judgment, Sunil Singh ‘Saajan’, a Samajwadi Party leader, said, “We had no faith in the BJP and its government, and had full faith in the judiciary.”
The BJP too welcomed Sengar’s conviction.“Sengar’s conviction is a triumph of justice, but it also underscores CM Yogi Adityanath’s zero tolerance on crime and matters as sensitive as these,” said Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson Navin Srivastava said.
(With inputs from HTC in Lucknow)
