The Delhi High Court has refused to suspend the 10-year prison sentence handed to ex-BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar over the custodial death of the Unnao rape survivor's father.
"No grounds are made out for grant relief. The application seeking suspension of sentence is dismissed," Justice Ravinder Dudeja said Monday afternoon, writing another chapter into the rape survivor's long and painful hunt for justice, for herself and her murdered father.
Justice Dudeja said Sengar could not be given relief - i.e., temporary bail on grounds of prolonged incarceration amid delayed hearing of appeals against the custodial death and rape case verdicts - because he himself had contributed to the delays by filing multiple applications.
Instead, the court called for the existing appeals to be "heard expeditiously".
Appeals against the December 2019 verdict that found Sengar guilty of raping the girl - for which he was handed a life term - and the March 2020 verdict in the custodial death case are pending.
Sengar had been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment in the custodial death case.
The trial court had said then 'no leniency' could be shown for killing the family's sole bread-earner - who had been arrested on a false Arms Act complaint, on orders from Sengar, and who died in police custody - and handed an identical sentence to Atul Singh Sengar, his brother.
The Unnao rape case made headlines last month after Sengar - then representing Uttar Pradesh's Bangarmau Lok Sabha seat - had the rape case sentence suspended by another bench of the High Court and was granted bail pending an appeal against the trial court verdict.
In a controversial order, the High Court reasoned his status at the time - as a MLA - did not justify the lower court considering him a 'public servant'. The bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan also said anti-child sexual offences law POCSO could not be applied in this case.
And, having dismissed Sengar as a 'public servant', the court said the seven-and-a-half years served so far is "more than minimum number" prescribed by law.
As a result Kuldeep Sengar was released on conditional bail; the conditions include a Rs 15 lakh personal bond, a promise not to leave Delhi or come within five kilometres of the survivor.
The release order was widely condemned while shocking scenes from Delhi - where the survivor and her mother were bullied and intimidated by central security forces while trying to protest - added to the tension and anger that has erupted over the past week.
His release led to clashes between central forces tasked with 'guarding' the survivor and members of her family, including frightening visuals of her mother seemingly forced to jump from a moving bus that then drove off with her daughter on board.
Speaking to reporters after the outrageous incident, the mother broke down and said, "We did not get justice. My daughter has been held captive. It seems they want to kill us."
RECAP | Shock As Men From Central Force Manhandle Unnao Survivor's Mother
A CRPF officer later claimed the survivor was being 'escorted' back home, though no formal statement has been made on the mother being removed from the bus.
