Unnao rape case: Ex-BJP MLA Sengar moves Delhi HC challenging his conviction, life sentence

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and life term for raping a minor girl in Unnao in 2017.

Sengar challenged the 20 December verdict of a trial court in New Delhi which had sentenced him to life imprisonment and had imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh in the case.

The court had convicted Sengar for rape under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act for offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child after holding the victim to be a minor. The woman was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor.

The trial which started on 5 August last year after it was transferred from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on the Supreme Court's directions, was carried on a day-to-day basis.

The apex court, taking cognisance of the rape survivor's letter written to the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, 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.

PTI