The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and others on the bail plea of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. He was convicted and awarded a life sentence for raping a minor in Unnao in 2017.
The bench comprising of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar issued notice to CBI and the victim in the case.
The petition has been listed for further hearing on May 25, 2022. Sengar had moved High Court against the conviction in the rape case. He was expelled from BJP and was disqualified after the conviction in the rape case.
Earlier the court had fixed a date for a hearing in July.
Advocate N Hariharan submitted before the bench that the petitioner has been long incarcerated in this case and that he has been in jail for the last four years.
The bench asked about the sentence in this case. To which Hariharan submitted that the petitioner is awarded a life sentence. He argued that the gravity of this case was enhanced the moment POCSO was invoked. Though the reality is that the victim was not a minor on the day of the incident.
Hariharan further submitted that the victim and her mother have filed affidavits stating that the victim was not a minor on the day of the incident.
Sengar was also convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the case of custodial death of the father of the victim of the rape case.
( With inputs from ANI )
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