Unnao Rape Case: Delhi High Court Reduces Period Of Interim Bail Granted To Ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar

The Delhi High Court on Friday reduced the period of interim bail granted to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Unnao rape case. He has been granted the interim bail to allow him attend his daughter’s wedding.

A division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Poonam A. Bamba modified its earlier order dated January 16 by which Sengar had been granted interim bail for a period of 15 days - January 27 to February 10. A single judge had also granted interim bail to Sengar with similar conditions in the murder case of victim’s father.

Sengar, who has been released today from jail, will now have to surrender on February 01. He will then be released again on February 06 to enable him to attend the wedding. He has been asked to finally surrender on February 10.

“All the other conditions noted in the order dated 16th January 2023 will remain same and shall be scrupulously followed, except that the everyday reporting will now be to Inspector Ganesh Shanker,” the court said.

The interim bail order was modified on an application moved by the victim in Sengar’s appeal against his conviction.

Advocate Mehmood Pracha appearing for the victim referred to an affidavit filed in November last year by Special Secretary (Home) of Uttar Pradesh before the Supreme Court stating that there is a threat to lives of the victim, her family and lawyers. He submitted that even a SHO in the case was convicted along with Sengar for custodial death of victim’s father.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate N. Hariharan appearing for Sengar submitted that that there is no cogent cause for modification of the order and that there is no threat to the witnesses since the trial stands completed.

Perusing the affidavit referred by Pracha, the court said that the victim and her immediate family members have been provided with security from Central Forces and not from any local police either of Uttar Pradesh or Delhi.

“The affidavit thus implies that based on the said threat perception, there is a continued requirement of security forces,” the court said.

Noting further that there are two main functions i.e. tilak ceremony on January 30) and wedding on February 8, the court said: “We may note that the appellant has already filed an application for leading additional evidence, hence the plea that there can be no threat to the witnesses cannot be accepted.”

The bench said that the custody parole for such a long period and requiring employing number of police personnel would not be feasible. It modified the interim bail order “due to the gap available in the Tilak ceremony and the wedding.”

The victim was repeatedly gang raped in 2017 by  Sengar and his accomplices, when she was a minor.

Sengar was convicted for raping the victim and for murdering her father in connivance with police officers of Makhi, a village in Unnao district. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The trial in the matter was transferred to Tis Hazari Courts by the Supreme Court in 2019 in the transfer petition moved by the survivor.

The apex court, taking cognisance of the rape survivor's letter written to then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, had transferred all five cases registered in connection with the incident from a Lucknow court in Uttar Pradesh to the court in Delhi with directions to hold the trial on a daily basis and completing it within 45 days.

Title: Kuldeep Singh Sengar v. CBI 

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