A Delhi court convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on Monday for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017 saying the victim’s testimony was “truthful and unblemished” against a “powerful person”.

The court convicted Sengar for rape under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act for offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child.

The court will hear arguments on quantum on sentence on Wednesday. The offences entail maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, however, acquitted co-accused Shashi Singh of all charges. Convicting Sengar, 53, under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court said the CBI proved that the victim was a minor and he was rightly prosecuted under the special law.

The court pulled up the CBI for delay in filing the charge as also the absence of women officer in conducting the probe “without bothering for the kind of harassment, anguish and re-victimisation that occurs for a victim of sexual assault.”

It also expressed displeasure over the agency leaking selectively the vital information relating to the statement of the survivor to put a cloud over her case.

The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor.

The court had also framed charges against co-accused Shashi Singh in the case. Sengar, a four-time BJP MLA from UP’s Bangermau, was expelled from the BJP in August 2019.

The woman and her family are provided CRPF security as per the apex court’s orders. They have now been shifted to a rented accommodation in the national capital with the assistance of the Delhi Commission for Women.

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