Unnao rape case: Kuldeep Sengar to remain in jail for life

Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar will remain in jail for entire life for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017, a Delhi court said on Friday while sentencing him for life.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma also imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh in the case and it has to be paid within a month.

“This court does not find any mitigating circumstance, Sengar was public servant and betrayed people’s faith,” the judge said while declining the plea for lenient approach in sentencing him.

The conduct of 53-year-old Sengar was to intimidate the rape survivor, the court said.

It also directed that the rape survivor be paid an additional Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the mother of the victim.

Besides, the court directed the CBI to continue assessing threat perception to the life and security of the survivor and her family members every three months.

It said they will continue to reside in rented accommodation made available by Delhi Commission for Women for one more year and directed the UP government to pay Rs 15,000 per month for the rent.

The court had on Monday convicted Sengar for rape under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act for offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child after holding the victim to be a minor in 2017.

The court had said the victim’s testimony was “truthful and unblemished” against a “powerful person”.

The recent amendments made in August this year in the POCSO Act, which carries a provision of death penalty, did not come into effect as the incident took place in 2017 before the law was amended.

The woman co-accused in the case Shashi Singh was acquitted of all charges saying that the CBI failed to prove that she was a co-conspirator with Sengar in the act of sexual assault committed upon the victim and “it appears that she herself was a victim of circumstances”.

Convicting Sengar, under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court said the CBI proved that the victim was a minor and he was rightly prosecuted under the special law.