By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Dec 16, 2019: A Delhi Court on December 16 convicted Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a former legislator of Uttar Pradesh, in the two-year-old Unnao rape case.
District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma passed the order against Sengar, who has been expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, the court acquitted co-accused, Shashi Singh, after extending her the benefit of doubt.
The trial in the case was held in-camera.
The Unnao rape survivor, a minor, was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar between June 11 and 20, 2017. She was then sold for 60,000 rupees, after which she was recovered at the Maakhi police station.
The survivor was thereafter continuously threatened and warned by the police officials against speaking, as instructed by Sengar.
After much efforts, a First Information Report was recorded against Sengar under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in April 2018. The Allahabad High Court ordered the arrest of Sengar for the alleged rape of the 15-year-old survivor in 2017.
Earlier this year, the Unnao rape case took a controversial turn after a lorry without a number plate rammed into the car in which the victim was travelling. The victim and her lawyer were critically injured, while two of her aunts died
Subsequently, the Supreme Court transferred the trial in all four cases relating to the Unnao rape case to Delhi from Lucknow and ordered that the same be held on a day-to-day basis and completed within 45 days.
Following the transfer, charges were framed.
The other cases which are pending before Court in relation to the Unnao rape case include cases pertaining to the death of the survivor’s father in judicial custody following an illegal firearms case against him, the involvement of Sengar and others in the accident case and the gang rape of the rape survivor by three others.
Sengar was convicted of kidnapping and raping.
The judge praised the rape survivor for “fighting against a powerful person” and slammed the foisting of false cases against her family. The judge also questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over delays in filing a chargesheet.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 17 with the maximum possible punishment being life imprisonment.
District Judge Dharmesh Sharma heard the case at Delhi’s Tis Hazari court on a day-to-day basis from August 5.
In a 10-page judgment that included criticism of the CBI and a searing indictment of socio-cultural norms in the country, the judge said the rape survivor, then a minor, had suffered from “patriarchal approach” that brushed aside the issue of sexual violence against children.
“In my considered opinion this investigation has suffered from patriarchal approach or inherent outlook to brush the issue of sexual violence against the children under the carpet… apart from exhibiting lack of sensitivity and humane approach,” the verdict read.
The judge also lashed out at the insensitivity of investigating officers in repeatedly summoning the rape survivor to the CBI offices without concern for the trauma she was facing.
“The investigation has not been conducted by a woman officer, as mandated by POCSO Act, and successive statements (were) recorded by calling her to CBI office without bothering about harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs to a victim of sexual assault,” he declared.
The verdict went on to say the testimony of the young woman had been “unblemished, truthful and of a sterling quality” and the court had no hesitation in concluding she had been sexually assaulted.
The Unnao rape case and its fallout became a saga of police callousness, administrative neglect and the harassment of a young girl and her helpless family by a politician who seemed to enjoy leniency at every step; despite sharp criticism the ruling party acted only a year after his arrest for rape.
Only last year Kuldeep Sengar, shortly after accusations were made, taunted the cops and the CBI.