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News > India

Indian Ex-Lawmaker from Modi's Party Guilty of Raping Teenager

  • Kuldeep Singh Sengar leaves a court after he was arrested on Friday in connection with the rape of a teenager, in Lucknow, India, April 14, 2018.

    Kuldeep Singh Sengar leaves a court after he was arrested on Friday in connection with the rape of a teenager, in Lucknow, India, April 14, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 17 December 2019
Opinion

Judge Dharmesh Sharma said as he read the verdict he found the victim’s statement “truthful and unblemished that she was sexually assaulted.”

A former lawmaker from the ruling far-right Bharatiya Janata Party was found guilty Tuesday by a court in India’s capital of raping a teenager in June 2017, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

RELATED:
Another Brutal Gang Rape and Murder Shakes India

The rape, which occurred in the Unnao district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, gripped the nation when it became known that the parliamentarian had pressured the young woman’s family to withdraw the report of the crime. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was a legislator in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, pleaded not guilty to the crime.

Judge Dharmesh Sharma said as he read the verdict he found the victim’s statement “truthful and unblemished that she was sexually assaulted.”

The victim’s father was arrested over allegedly carrying illegal weapons after the rape came to light and died in police custody. The father was allegedly beaten by supporters of Sengar.

In July, the young woman who accused the politician was involved in a traffic accident in which she was injured and two of her relatives died. The case was thrust into the spotlight again amid suspicions the accident could have been a threat to the victim due to appear in court.

Anger among Indians has been mounting and rape cases have been the focus of protests in recent weeks after the brutal killings of two women who had been victims of rape.

One of them, also from the district of Unnao, died after a group of men set her on fire as she was on her way to a court to testify in her case. The crime took place a year ago.

The other case, in the city of Hyderabad, occurred at the end of November when a veterinarian was gang-raped and killed by a group of four men.

On Dec. 6, the four accused, who were in police custody, were shot dead in the same spot where the body of the young woman was found.

The authorities alleged the defendants were taken there for a reconstruction of the crime scene and had to be shot for allegedly trying to escape and attack the officers who had brought them to the field.

Laws against sexual assaults hardened in India after a university student died after being raped and tortured by six men on a bus in 2012 in New Delhi, in a case that triggered shock around the world.

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