Indian political leader convicted of rape
New Delhi, India - A former ruling party lawmaker was convicted on Monday of raping a teenager in a high-profile case that underscored India’s rampant sexual violence and the impunity enjoyed by the elite.
Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a powerful four-time state legislator for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was found guilty of raping the then 17 year old at his home in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, lawyers said.
Sentencing will be announced later this week.
The verdict came amid renewed public anger about sexual assaults in India and the failures of the overloaded criminal justice system in tackling such crimes.
Early this month, four rapemurder suspects were killed in what police claimed was a ‘shootout’ in the southern city of Hyderabad, and a woman died after her alleged attackers set her on fire en route to a court in Uttar Pradesh state.
It also falls on the anniversary of the brutal 2012 gangrape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi that triggered nationwide protests and international outrage.
Sengar, who was expelled from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in August, broke down in tears as the verdict was announced in the district court in New Delhi.
Judge Dharmesh Sharma said the ‘unshaken testimony’ of the victim and ‘sufficient evidence’ had proved Sengar’s guilt.
“I found her statement truthful and unblemished that she was sexually assaulted,” the judge said in the verdict.
The case was heard from August 5 after the Supreme Court ordered the trial be moved to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh, where the politician enjoyed considerable clout.
The victim’s father died last year in police custody after being accused of keeping firearms illegally, with the family alleging he was arrested and tortured by police for trying to pursue the case.
The woman was also critically injured in a suspicious car crash in July. A separate trial is being held over the accident amid allegations it was a hit carried out on Sengar’s orders.