Kuldeep Sengar Gets 10-Year Jail For Murder Of UP Rape Survivor's Father

Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering the father of a teen girl he raped in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao in 2017. His brother and co-accused, Atul Singh Sengar, has been handed a similar term. A Delhi court also ordered the brothers to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the family of the Unnao rape survivor.

The Unnao rape survivor's father had died on April 9, 2018, while in judicial custody.

"The victim lost her father. She can't return to her home. There are four kids in the family... three of them are girls...all four are minors," District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said this morning while delivering the judgment in Delhi.

'There can be no denying that rule of law was broken. Sengar was a public functionary and had to maintain the rule of law. The way the crime has been committed, it does not call for leniency," the judge added, according to news agency IANS.

The court handed down the same sentence for two policemen charged with criminal conspiracy for falsely implicating the father in an Arms Act case; the cops were out on bail.

Last week Kuldeep Sengar and Atul Sengar, along with the other accused, had been convicted of culpable homicide (not amounting to murder) and criminal conspiracy. The judge said the father had been brutally beaten, but there was no intention of murder.

Kuldeep Singh Sengar denied involvement in the death of the father and said he had done no wrong.

On the orders of the Supreme Court, the Delhi court was hearing two cases together - the death of the father and the false Arms Act case.

The judge had earlier observed that a country-made pistol had been planted on the father and he was beaten up at the police station.

It was "part of a larger conspiracy to deter, silence and prevent the father from pursuing the complaint" in the rape case, he added, pointing out his body bore multiple severe injuries.

The judge also said that even though Kuldeep Singh Sengar was in Delhi at the time, he had been in touch with Unnao cops. The father had been picked up from the roadside, taken to a police station and beaten up, he added.

The rape case, which made international headlines, came under the scanner after the girl - after running from pillar to post for justice - tried to commit suicide outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home.

Her father died the following day. He had been admitted hours before his death with complaints of stomach pains. This morning the court directed the UP government to take action against hospital authorities involved in his treatment for "gross medical negligence".

At the time, his face bore multiple bruise and lacerations. A postmortem report said he died due to blood poisoning from a perforated intestine. It also listed 14 bruises all over his body.

Earlier during a routine medical check-up before he went to jail - conducted at the same hospital - he had named Atul Singh Sengar as his attacker.

"Atul Singh, the brother of the lawmaker thrashed me. He kept on beating me. Nobody tried to save me," he was heard saying in a video that surfaced months later. "Police waale (police men -- perhaps the security personnel of the lawmaker) were standing there. They did nothing," says the man, bruises plainly visible on his face and chest.

Kuldeep Singh Sengar had already been "sentenced to undergo imprisonment for the remainder of his natural biological life" in the Unnao rape case, as per the sentence handed down in December last year. He had also been ordered to pay Rs 30 lakh to the family of the rape survivor.

With input from IANS, PTI