The Supreme Court has set aside a Delhi High Court order suspending ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s life sentence in the rape of a minor in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao in 2017.
“We do not endorse the hyper-technical conclusion of the high court that an MLA is not a public servant under POCSO,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi said.
The court did not express an opinion on the merits of the case and directed the high court to decide the main appeal within two months.
The Unnao rape case made national headlines again last month after Sengar – then representing Uttar Pradesh’s Bangarmau Assembly 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 – an 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.