Unnao rape accused Sengar held guilty by Delhi's Tis Hazari Court

New Delhi: The prime accused and former BJP MLA of Uttar Pradesh's infamous rape case, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, on Monday has been found guilty by Delhi's Tis Hazari Court in the case of alleged kidnapping and rape of a woman in Unnao in 2017.

The District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, has been hearing the 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 victim was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. After the case came into limelight the four-time BJP MLA from UP's Bangermau,Sengar was expelled from the party in August, 2019.

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The court on August 9 had 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.

It is to be mentioned that on July 28 this year, the woman who had accused Sengar was severely injured after the car in which she was travelling was hit by a truck. In this alleged conspiracy to suppress the case against the influential political leader, two of her aunts were killed in the accident. Her family had alleged foul play.

The father of the Unnao rape survivor was also 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.

Later, the local court here had framed murder and other charges against the MLA, his brother Atul and nine others in the case.

The apex court, taking cognizance of the rape survivor's letter written to then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, 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 a daily basis and completing it within 45 days.

However, the trial in the other four cases -- framing of the rape survivor's father in 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 still ongoing in the court.

A special court was also held at AIIMS hospital, Delhi to record the statement of the rape survivor, who was admitted there after she was air-lifted from a KGMU hospital in Lucknow following the car crash.

The rape survivor and her family has been provided CRPF security as per the Supreme court's orders. And now, they have been shifted to a rented house in the national capital with the assistance of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).

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