Kuldeep Sengar: Power lord from the hinterland reemerges
Indian judiciary has an image to protect. When a victim becomes helpless and sees other pillars of democracy crumbling, she looks up to the exalted benches with hope for justice. The last refuge of the powerless can also deliver irony in the winter chill of the national capital, especially when the perpetrator is a man of brute, feudal and political power, that runs amok naked in the wild fields. In offering reprieve to Kuldeep Singh Sengar, former BJP MLA and convict of rape and murder, the Delhi High Court climbed down from the height the lady of justice sits. Even without a seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Sengar is powerful enough to scare the rape survivor and drive a nations conscience towards an agitation it would have preferred to avoid. The rape survivor, her mother, and activists sat on dharnas wherever they could, including outside the court premises. They could do so because, in a twist of unfortunate irony, Sengar is no ordinary one-issue convict. He got bail from the HC in the rape case, but will stay in jail, as he is serving another 10-year sentence for plotting the murder of the rape survivors father. He could walk out of jailan unimaginable scenario for the survivorif judiciary continues with its magnanimous streak towards the powerful and grants him bail in that case too. Senger is a quintessential north Indian politician of the hinterlands. Not suave, not a man of letters, not bothered about legal fine-print, not concerned about Article 21 of the Constitution: just a man surrounded by musclemen and a caravan of vehicles with red beacons. He might have considered himself an invincible frog in the small well of Unnao constitutency, something that led him to violate the 16-year-old survivor. Who can forget the April forenoon of 2018, when the minor survivor tried to immolate herself outside the heavily guarded residence of the chief minister in Lucknow in a desperate act to push the state government towards acknowledging her plight. The minor claimed that Sengar, the powerful BJP MLA of Bangarmau in Unnao, had raped her the previous year. She also accused the system of shielding him. When the media woke up to her tragedy, Sengars power was briefly curtailed. He was arrested and sent to jail, but he was still the power lord. He plotted an assault on the survivors father in custody as the father was picked by cops after getting implicated in a case of brawl with Sengars men. The father was being allegedly coerced by Unnao cops to ask his daughter to withdraw charges against Senger. The public outcry ensured that justice was delivered to the survivor. Politicians also joined in. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led a sustained campaign against him. The political pressure clipped his wings, as he was expelled from BJP. A POCSO court sentenced him to life in December 2019 and ordered him to pay `25 lakh as compensation to the survivor. But before he was delivered justice, Sengar, allegedly, had another shot at lawlessness. On July 28, 2019, the survivor was travelling in car with others which was rammed into by a truck without a registration number plate. The survivor became doubly survived in the accident. She emerged out of this episode critically injured, like her lawyer, but lost two aunts, all of whom were travelling in the same car. The police made Sengar, his brother, and few aides accused in the case. When Sengar was eventually convicted in the rape case, the nation heaved a sigh of relief, believing that he was done for life and an example had been set for the brute, unbridled power of the hinterland. But, his bail a few days back has brought back a sense of doom and fear of naked power. Under public pressure, the CBI has decided to appeal against the HC order in the Supreme Court. But, will the power be fettered at the highest level? We feel that the CBI has approached SC just for saving its face and to douse down the public anger against Delhi High Court order, says the survivors counsel Mehmood Pracha. This is Sengars relevance in the Indian milieu!
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