Unnao rape case: Kuldeep Sengar gets life imprisonment

Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been sentenced to life imprisonment by Delhi's Tis Hazari Court in connection with 2017 Unnao rape case. The court has also ordered Sengar to pay a compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to the victim.

While pronouncing the quantum of punishment the Court said that life imprisonment will mean"imprisonment for the remainder of his natural or biological life" in terms of Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code.

This apart, the Tis Hazari Court also ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to assess threat perception and offer the necessary protection to the victim and her family. The CBI has also been directed to provide a safe house to the victim and her family members.

On Monday the Court convicted Sengar in the case of kidnapping and rape of a woman in Unnao in 2017. However, the court had acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges.

The verdict was pronounced District Judge Dharmesh Sharma.

Sengar has been convicted under Section 376 IPC and section 5(c) of POCSO Act.

The judge heard 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 woman was 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.

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

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

On July 28 this year, the woman who had accused Sengar was severely injured after the car in which she was traveling was hit by a truck. Two of her aunts were killed in the accident and her family had alleged foul play.

The woman's father was 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.

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

The apex court, taking cognisance 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.

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 the gang rape of the rape survivor by three others -- are ongoing in the court.

Also Read: Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar convicted by Delhi court