Expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Sengar, 6 others convicted for murder of Unnao rape survivor's father

A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted seven persons, including expelled BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in a case pertaining to murder of Unnao rape survivor`s father.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma held them guilty under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for offences such as conspiracy, culpable homicide, disappearance of evidence, framing incorrect record and wrongfully restraining a person, and the Arms Act.

The court, however, acquitted four persons by according them a "benefit of doubt". "It is apparent that too many persons behind the curtains were supporting, assisting or abetting the gruesome act but then each one cannot be held culpable as per law on mere suspicion," the judge said in the judgement.

The case pertains the death of rape survivor`s father in custody on April 9, 2018. The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor.

The court had, on December 20 last year, sent him to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping her.

In the case pertaining to death of her father, the court on Wednesday observed that Sengar, along with four others, entered into "criminal conspiracy to teach a lesson to victim who dared to raise his head against him".

"The sequence of events establish beyond reasonable doubt that under the patronage of kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother, along with foot soldiers assaulted the victim with leg and fist blows and by intermittently hitting him in a piercing manner with the barrel of rifle," the court stated.

The judge, while pronouncing the order, observed that Sengar had no intention to kill the rape victim`s father. "He (victim) was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death."

The court stated that Police Station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria and another police officer named K.P Singh, who are also convicted in the case, did not intervene or save the victim from the clutches of the assailants.

"Police officers should have intervened and tried to save the person," the Judge noted.

The accused persons also hatched conspiracy to foist a false case upon victim by planting a country made him and four cartridges, he stated. The court further said that later there was a gross medical negligence and doctors acted like butchers, leading to his death.

According to the charge sheet in July 2018, the survivor`s father and his co-worker were returning to their village when they asked for lift from Shashi Pratap Singh. He denied it which then lead to an altercation.

Singh then called his associates, including Sengar`s brother Atul and others, who beat up the survivor`s father. He was taken to jail instead of the hospital even though he was grievously injured and died two days later in police custody.

Kuldeep Sengar was in touch the whole time with the district police chief and Makhi police station incharge Bhadauria. He later also talked to the doctor who examined the father.The matter came to light after a video clip showing Atul Sengar beating the father went viral on the social media.

The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court`s directions in August last year. Kuldeep Singh Sengar was recently disqualified from the membership of the UP assembly, following his conviction in the rape case.