Death of rape victim’s father in Unnao: Delhi HC refuses to suspend jail sentence of expelled BJP politician Kuldeep Sengar

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay the 10-year jail sentence imposed on expelled BJP politician Kuldeep Singh Sengar for the custodial death of the father of the Unnao rape victim.

Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma rejected Sengar’s request to suspend his sentence pending his appeal against the conviction.

“This court is not inclined to grant the present application for suspension of sentence at this stage. Accordingly, the present application is dismissed,” the court said.

Sengar requested that his sentence be suspended on the grounds that he had already served nearly six years of his sentence and that the prosecution’s charges against him were based solely on circumstantial evidence.

Justice Sharma, however, said once an accused is found guilty, the presumption of innocence disappears and his application for suspension of sentence has to be considered on the basis of a prima facie assessment of his role, the gravity of the offence, etc. and the time he spent in jail is only one of those various factors.

In its ruling, the court stated that the decision to suspend a sentence must also take into account factors such as the nature of the crime, the convicted person’s criminal history, the impact on public confidence and the risk to victims.

The court noted that Sengar had already been convicted of raping the deceased man’s minor daughter and had been sentenced to life imprisonment in that case.

Sengar’s appeal against the trial court’s verdict in the Unnao rape case is already pending before the Supreme Court.

He has sought quashing of the December 16, 2019, verdict of the court which convicted him in the rape case. Sengar has also sought quashing of the December 20, 2019, verdict which sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The girl was kidnapped and raped by Sengar as a minor in 2017.

On March 13, 2020, Sengar was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh by the court as the rape victim’s father died in custody. The court had said that there could be “no leniency” for killing the “sole breadwinner” of a family.

In addition, Sengar’s brother Atul Singh Sengar and five others were sentenced to ten years in prison for their role in the custodial killing of the rape victim’s father.

The girl’s father was arrested under the Arms Act at Sengar’s behest and died in custody on April 9, 2018 due to police brutality.

The Court of First Instance, which found the accused not guilty of murder under the Criminal Code, sentenced the convict to the maximum penalty for the offence of intentional homicide under Section 304 of the Criminal Code after finding that there was no intent to kill.

On the directions of the Supreme Court, the case was transferred from a court in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on August 1, 2019.