Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court, on December 16, convicted the expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Kuldeep Singh Sengar of kidnapping and raping a woman in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. The woman was then a minor.
Sengar has been convicted under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code
and sections 5(c) and 6 of Protection of Child from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), according to news agency ANI.
The court had on August 9 framed charges against the MLA and Singh under Sections 120 b (criminal intrigue), 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 court had also framed charges against co-accused Shashi Singh in the case. Shashi Singh has been acquitted.
The more information about the sentence will be known by 17th December according to the reports.
Sengar, a four-time BJP MLA from UP’s Bangermau, was expelled from the BJP in August 2019.
The case had a day-to-day hearing from August 5th after it was transferred to Delhi from a court in Lucknow based on the Supreme Court of India (SC)’s direction.
Earlier, in April 2018 the rape survivor’s father was arrested in an illegal arms case and he died in the judicial custody, a few days later.
Then the rape survivor’s car was hit by a truck and she was severely injured while two of her aunts died.
The apex court then transferred the case to the Delhi court based on the direction of the Supreme court.
The trial in the other four cases — framing of the rape survivor’s father in illegal firearms case and his death in judicial custody, a conspiracy of Sengar with others in the accident case and a separate case of gangrape of the rape survivor by three others — are ongoing in the court.
