Unnao rape case: Delhi Court convicts ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar

• A Delhi Court convicted former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for kidnapping and raping a minor girl in Unnao in 2017.
  
• Sengar convicted for rape under IPC, POCSO Act for offence of public servant committing penetrative sexual assault on child.
  
• The court, however, acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges.
  

A Delhi Court convicted former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for kidnapping and raping a minor girl in Unnao in 2017.

Sengar convicted for rape under IPC, POCSO Act for offence of public servant committing penetrative sexual assault on child. The court however acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges. The court to hear arguments on the quantum of sentence for Sengar on Wednesday.

The CBI investigation

The Central Bureau of Investigation gave a statement to the Delhi High Court that the charges of rape pressed by the 19-year-old girl against Senghar are correct. The investigating agency had said that they have sufficient evidence to prove Senghar guilty.

Senghar is guilty of plotting the rape of the minor along with co-accused Shashi Singh, reported Times of India citing CBI.

The rape survivor, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, told the CBI that Singh took her inside Senghar's residence, and gang-raped her.

CBI also accused Senghar of engineering an accident that took place on 28 July which killed both her aunts. She and her lawyer were also critically injured. On August 6, she was taken off the ventilator and airlifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

CBI filed a case against Sengar and eight others for the accident.

Fighting for the right to justice
The conviction might be too little too late, as the survivor faced many hardships and lost her father and two aunts in her long extended fight for justice. Her father was arrested on an arms case and had died in police custody.

A few days before her accident, she wrote to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) on July 12 mentioning the possibility of a threat. Unfortunately, the message reached CJI Ranjan Gogoi on 30 July, two days after the accident.

After the accident, a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi also transferred the all the five Unnao cases — rape, case on her father under Arms Act, a case on the custodial death of the father, murder case against Kuldeep Sengar, and finally the accident — to Delhi High Court on 1 August 2019.

The Supreme Court also ordered the bench to conclude all the judicial proceedings within 45 days. The apex court also issued orders to provide ₹250,000 as interim compensation to the survivors.

In 2019, two rape cases shocked the nation when both the victims were burnt to death. The first was the rape and murder of a 27-year old doctor in Hyderabad which culminated into an encounter where all the accused were shot by Telangana police. Yet another rape victim of Unnao itself died a horrific death as the 23 year old was stabbed and set on fire as she was on her way to a court hearing.

See Also:
Hyderabad rape case accused shot dead in an encounter and magisterial probe is ordered
India’s apex court directs UP state government to grant ₹25 lakh as interim compensation to Unnao rape survivor
A 19-year old Indian rape victim lost her father and nearly lost her life in her fight for justice