New Delhi: A court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape survivor’s father.
The rape survivor’s father had died in judicial custody on April 9, 2018.
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District judge Dharmesh Sharma said Sengar had no intention of killing the survivor’s father.
“He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death,” the judge said.
On April 3, 2018, the survivor’s family travelled to Unnao for a hearing when her father, Surendra, was brutally assaulted by Sengar’s brother, Atul Singh, and accomplices, in broad daylight. Videos later emerged showing the severity of the beating that was meted out to the survivor’s father. According to reports then, Atul and his men had tied Surendra to a tree, and proceeded to punch, thrash and beat him with sticks, belts and rods in front of his family until he lost consciousness.
Police filed an FIR charging five men with assault, but excluded Atul despite the fact that the written complaint submitted by the family to the police mentions him by name. In a video from the day, Surendra can be heard naming the MLA’s brother as the one who assaulted him.
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On April 4, in a bizarre twist, police arrested Surendra on charges of illegal possession of firearms. He was sent to jail amidst his family’s fears that he might be killed in custody. Doctors allegedly did not admit him to a hospital despite severe injuries.
Police instead highlighted the fact that there was alleged “dispute between the two parties over the past 10 to 12 years, with cases registered against each other,” The Hindu had reported.
On April 9 the survivor’s father died in police custody because of “blood poisoning due to perforation of colon” according to the post-mortem report which also lists multiple injuries and abrasions around his arms, thighs, buttocks, knees and abdomen. Police personnel denied accusations of torture.
(With PTI inputs)