On Monday, December 16, MLA Kuldeep Sengar was convicted by a Delhi court for raping a minor in Unnao in 2017. The court held the victim’s testimony as “unblemished, truthful and of sterling quality”.

Following the conviction, the CBI was slammed by the court for selectively leaking witness statements and call detail records in an attempt to weaken the girl’s case.

Sengar Arrested

Relying on the girl’s statement, the court took into account the incidents that took place after the rape – the murder of her father, her uncle being jailed. Since the girl was a minor at the time of the crime, Sengar was convicted under Section 376 of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and may spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

The offence carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in jail, or may extend to life imprisonment as well. 

The POCSO Act was amended in 2019 to provide death sentence for such offences. However, it may not apply on Sengar because his crime dates back to 2017.

“It is explained by the girl that such facts were not disclosed by her (earlier) as she had been threatened by Sengar to keep quiet or else she and her family would not be spared…and it is established that no sooner was the incident reported, that a vicious tirade against her uncle Mahesh and her deceased father was orchestrated by Sengar to keep Mahesh behind bars and leading to the alleged incident of beating of her father,” the court said.

Court Pulls Up CBI

The CBI was slammed in the judgement for a number of reasons – for not assigning a woman officer to conduct the investigation as is mandatory under the POCSO Act, for calling the victim to the CBI office to record her successive statements “without bothering on the kind of harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs to the victim of sexual assault in such a case”, and for delaying to file a charge sheet by almost a year.

The court further said that the witnesses’ statements and call detail records “appear to have been selectively leaked to put a cloud over the case of the complainant”. It said that the “huge data” that was retrieved from the two mobiles of Sengar was not examined by the CBI.

“It appears that somewhere investigation has not been fair to the victim of crime and her family members,” the court said.

“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 minds of young girls in the countryside or elsewhere against reporting issues of sexual assault by powerful adults,” the court added.

Sengar’s co-accused Shashi Singh, however, was acquitted by the court. Singh allegedly lured the girl to Sengar’s house on June 4, 2017, where she was later raped. 

Also Read: Breaking: Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Convicted Of Raping, Kidnapping Minor In Unnao