New Delhi:A Delhi court convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on Monday for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017 saying the victim's testimony was "truthful and unblemished" against a "powerful person".
The court 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.
The court will hear arguments on quantum on sentence on Wednesday.The offences entail maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, however, acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges.
Convicting Sengar, 53, 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.
"I found her statement truthful and unblemished that she was sexually assaulted. She was under threat, worried. She is a village girl, not from cosmopolitan educated area... Sengar was powerful person. So she took her time..," the judge said while reading out the verdict.
When the judge started pronouncing the verdict, co-accused Singh fainted.
The court noted that after the victim wrote letter to the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several criminal cases were filed against her family and "imprints of Sengar" were visible in them.
The court expressed surprise over the delay by the CBI in filing charge sheet in the rape case and said it prolonged trial against Sengar and others.
The court pulled up the CBI for delay in filing the charge as also the absence of women officer in conducting the probe "without bothering for the kind of harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs for a victim of sexual assault".
It also expressed displeasure over the agency leaking selectively the vital information relating to the statement of the survivor to put a cloud over her case.
The court said that "according to the law there should be female officers in CBI to record the statement of victims in such cases but surprisingly the girl was called many times to CBI office instead of going to her residence".
Here's a timeline of events:
2017
June 4: The 17-year-old girl goes missing from her village, Mankhi in Uttar Pradesh (UP)
- Allegedly gang-raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother Atul Singh and their accomplices.
- A missing person's complaint is filed by her family members
June 21: She is found in Aurraiya
June 22:Case is registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman to compel her for marriage) of the IPC
2018
April 3: Victim's father is thrashed by the MLA's brother Atul Sengar and his accomplices.
-Though both sides lodge complaints against each other, the police choose to arrest only her father, who is then sent to judicial custody
April 8:The survivor tries to immolate herself outside CM Yogi Adityanath’s residence in Lucknow, alleging police inaction against Sengar
April 9: Victim's father dies in police custody, and the post-mortem report points out
multiple injuries on his body
April 11: The survivor and her family are confined to a hotel room on the pretext of protection, without water or electricity