Delhi court reserves verdict for 16 December against ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao rape case

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved verdict for next week in the case of alleged kidnapping and rape of a woman by expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao in 2017. [caption id=“attachment_4433733” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Kuldeep Singh Sengar. PTI[/caption] During in-camera proceedings, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma reserved the judgement for 16 December after hearing final arguments by the CBI and the accused in the case. The judge heard the case on a day-to-day basis from 5 August after it was transferred to Delhi from a court in Lucknow on Supreme Court’s directions. The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. The court has also framed charges against co-accused Shashi Singh in the case. Sengar was expelled from the BJP in August 2019. The court had on August 9 framed charges against the MLA and Singh under Sections 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping or inducing a woman to compel for marriage), 376 (rape) and other relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. On 28 July this year, the car of the woman who had accused Sengar was hit by a truck and she was severely injured. The woman’s two aunts were killed in the accident and her family had alleged foul play. Her father was allegedly framed in an illegal arms case and arrested on 3 April, 2018. He died while in judicial custody a few days later, on 9 April. The local court in Delhi has framed murder and other charges against the MLA, his brother Atul and nine others in the case. The apex court had on 1 August transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court in Uttar Pradesh to the court in Delhi with directions to hold trial on daily basis and completing it within 45-days. During the trial in the rape case which was held in-camera, thirteen prosecution witnesses and nine defence witnesses were examined. A special court was also held at AIIMS hospital in the National Capital to record the statement of the rape survivor, who was admitted there after she was air-lifted from a hospital in Lucknow. The woman and her family is provided CRPF security as per the apex court’s orders. They have now been shifted to a rented accommodation in the national capital with the assistance of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).