Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on January 19 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, 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 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.