A Delhi court has sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment the disqualified BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar for the custody death of the father of the Unnao girl the politician had raped.

The court said “no leniency” could be shown for killing a family’s “sole bread-earner”. It also slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on him.

Sengar, who has already been sentenced to the “remainder of his natural biological life” for raping the minor Unnao girl, was stripped of his membership of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on February 25 following his conviction in the rape case.

Pronouncing the sentence in a packed courtroom, district judge Dharmesh Sharma also handed a 10-year jail term to Kuldeep’s brother Atul Singh Sengar and five others for their role in the custodial killing of the father of the rape victim.

The court, which did not hold the accused guilty of murder under the IPC, pronounced the maximum sentence for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under IPC Section 304 after holding that there was no intention to kill.

The Sengar brothers will have to pay Rs 10 lakh each as fine within three months to the legal heirs of the deceased, including the rape victim, as compensation. “Considering the minor children (of the deceased) losing their father who was the sole breadwinner of the family and keeping in mind the fact that the victim’s family has been uprooted from their native place, all the convicts in the case are being sentenced to maximum punishment,” the court said.

It added that Kuldeep and the co-convicts, including two police officers, being public servants were supposed to uphold the law but there was no denying the fact that they broke the rule of law.

“The way the crime has been committed, the victim’s father was beaten up and paraded, no leniency can be given to the convicts and therefore, I am sentencing all the convicts to the maximum punishment,” the judge said.

The court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take appropriate disciplinary proceedings for medical negligence against the doctors who had treated the father when he was injured and in judicial custody.

The father of the rape victim had been arrested at the behest of Kuldeep under the Arms Act and died in custody on April 9, 2018, because of police brutalities.

Action against doctors

A Delhi court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take disciplinary action for negligence against doctors who had treated the father of the Unnao girl when he was injured in custody. PTI