Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has moved the Delhi High Court, challenging his conviction and life term in the Unnao rape case.

Sengar was sentenced for life for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017.

Delhi’s Tis Hazari court had convicted him under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 5 (c) (aggravated penetrative sexual assault of a child) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), as the court found that the girl was a minor at the time of the offence.

The District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma had further directed Sengar to pay a compensation of 25 lakh rupees to the survivor and 15 lakh rupees as costs, to the prosecution.

The investigating agency in the case, CBI, had urged the court for giving stringent punishment to the accused earlier in the day.

Sengar, a four-time MLA from UP’s Bangermau constituency, was expelled from the BJP in August 2019.
Another accused, Shashi Singh, however, was acquitted of all charges.

“Sengar was a powerful person and the victim was a village girl, not from a cosmopolitan educated area which led to delay in filing the case,” the court had said.

— India Legal Bureau