A court in Tis Hazari complex in Delhi on Monday found expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar guilty for raping a minor in Unnao in 2017. Sengar will be sentenced on December 19.
The Unnao case had attracted massive media attention in 2018, with allegations the BJP government of Yogi Adityanath had been slow to take action. The victim's father died after being assaulted by police when he was arrested in an arms case. The rape case was registered only after the victim attempted to immolate herself outside Adityanath's residence. The victim and her relatives were involved in a car crash in July, which left her seriously injured and raised suspicions of a conspiracy to derail the case. Two of her aunts were killed in the accident.
The judge heard the Unnao case on a day-to-day basis from August 5 after it was transferred to Delhi from a court in Lucknow on the Supreme Court's direction.
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. The court however expressed doubt about the evidence against Shashi Singh and acquitted him. The court criticised the CBI for inordinate delay in bring the case to trial.
Sengar, a four-time BJP MLA from Bangermau, was expelled from the party in August 2019.
The court had on August 9 framed charges against the MLA and Singh under Sections 120B (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.
The trial in four separate cases—framing of the rape survivor's father in an illegal firearms case and his death in judicial custody, conspiracy of Sengar with others in the accident case and a separate case of gang-rape of the rape survivor by three others—are ongoing in the court.
During the trial in the rape case, which was held in-camera, 13 prosecution witnesses and nine defence witnesses were examined. The mother and uncle of the rape survivor were the main witnesses in the case.
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A special court was also held at AIIMS to record the statement of the rape survivor, who was admitted there after she was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow following the car crash.
The woman and her family has been provided CRPF security as per the Supreme 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).
(With PTI inputs)
