Delhi HC grants interim bail to Unnao rape case accused Sengar

The Delhi high court on Wednesday granted interim bail till January 27 to Unnao rape case convict and expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar to undergo a cataract operation.

A bench led by justice Navin Chawla asked the Delhi police to release Sengar on Thursday to enable him to get admitted at AIIMS on Friday while directing him to surrender by Monday noon.

The bench, also comprising justice Harish Shankar Vaidyanathan, while ordering his release on interim bail, noted that Sengar had not violated the terms on which he was previously granted a suspension of sentence.

To be sure, the grant of bail would not result in his immediate release since he is also serving sentence in a case related to the custodial death rape victim’s father.

“There is no allegation of the appellant violating the terms on which he was earlier granted suspension of sentence. Keeping in view the above, we suspend the sentence of the appellant. The petitioner shall be released on bail tomorrow subject to the appellant furnishing personal bond of ₹50,000. If for any reason, the surgery cannot be conducted, he shall surrender on the same day before 7pm,” the court said in its order.

Sengar had approached the Delhi high court seeking suspension of his sentence for a month to undergo a cataract surgery. The application was preferred in Sengar’s petition challenging city court’s December 2019 order convicting him for raping a girl in Unnao and sentencing him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. In his application, Sengar had asserted that AIIMS had advised him to undergo a cataract surgery, for which he had to be admitted on January 24.

Meanwhile, a bench of justice Vikas Mahajan on Wednesday sought the victim’s response over Sengar’s plea seeking suspension of sentence in a case related to the custodial death rape victim’s father and fixed January 31 as the next date of hearing.

In March 2020, Sengar and six others including his brother – Jaideep Singh Sengar and two policemen – Ashok Singh Bhadauria and KP Singh were convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304), criminal conspiracy (120B), wrongful restraint (341), voluntarily causing hurt (323) and relevant sections of Arms Act of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the trial court. The trial court had said “no leniency” could be shown for killing a family’s “sole bread earner”.

In his plea seeking suspension of sentence, Sengar had asserted that he had already completed 90% of the sentence awarded to him and there was a change of circumstances due to his ailments.