Delhi court finds Sengar guilty in Unnao rape case

THE DISTRICT JUDGE NOTED THE TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVOR, NOW 19, WAS ‘TRUTHFUL AND UNBLEMISHED’ AGAINST A ‘POWERFUL PERSON’

NEWDELHI: A Delhi court on Monday convicted expelled BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar for abducting and raping a minor girl in 2017, pronouncing judgment in a sensational case that triggered nationwide protests.

Reading out his order, district judge Dharmesh Sharma noted that the testimony of the rape survivor, who is now 19 years old, was “truthful and unblemished” against a “powerful person”.

“She was under threat, worried. She is a village girl, not from cosmopolitan educated area... Sengar was a powerful person. So she took her time...,” the judge said. Sengar, 53, a four-time legislator who is also accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy against the survivor’s family and causing them harm, was convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The court will hear arguments on the quantum of sentence on Tuesday. Sengar’s offences can invite a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

“A tirade was unleashed upon the girl and her family members... where imprints of the accused Sengar were quite visible,” the judge said. Sengar, once a powerful lawmaker, was in tears in the court.

The judge added that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) proved that the survivor was a minor and that Sengar was rightly prosecuted under the Pocso Act. “The instant case manifests the multitudes of restrictions and taboos within which many women in the rural areas are brought up, grow and survive. It epitomises the fear ingrained in the mind of young girl in the countryside or elsewhere against reporting issues of sexual assault by powerful adults,” the judge said in the order.

The judge also pulled up CBI, saying the investigation “suffered from patriarchal approach or inherent outlook to brush the issues of sexual violence against the children under the carpet”.

“It appears that somewhere the investigation in the instant case has not been fair to the victim of crime and her family members. The investigation has not been conducted by a woman officer... and successive statements of the victim girl had been recorded by calling her at the CBI office without bothering for the kind of harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs to a victim of sexual assault in such case,” the judge said.

The judge also questioned CBI over the delay in the filing of a charge sheet in a related case.

Judge Sharma acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh, who allegedly took the survivor to Sengar on the pretext of helping her get a job.