Photo of Unnao rape accused MLA put up on I-Day greetings in newspaper

Lucknow: Rape-and-murder-accused Unnao MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was shown the way out of the Bhartiya Janata Party but the lawmaker has once again found place along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Sengar, who has been charged with raping a teenage girl and murdering her father, was featured prominently in a full page advertisement in a leading Hindi newspaper on Independence Day, along with Modi, Adityanath and union home minister Amit Shah.

The advertisement was taken out by a local BJP leader and chief of the Nagar Panchayat of Uugu in Unnao, Anuj Dixit, congratulating people on the occasion of Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan.

“He (Kuldeep Singh Sengar) is the MLA of our area that is why his photo is there. Till the time he is our MLA, his photo can be put,” Dixit told news agency ANI.

The party’s spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi also claimed that was nothing wrong in publishing the pictures of top BJP leadership along with that of the Unnao MLA as the MLA is a rape-accused and has not been proven guilty of rape.

Speaking to News18 over phone, he said, “The advertisement was released at a local level and it is routine to publish pictures of elected representatives. Kuldeep Singh Sengar is an accused and not guilty of rape. I don’t see anything wrong in such advertisement.”

“Why don’t people question politicians like Lalu Yadav who are proven guilty in many cases and still Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets him. There can be many allegations on anyone but one has to be proven guilty. Moreover, Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been shunted out from the party till the time he is under trial,” he added.

Sengar was expelled by the BJP last month after pressure on the party grew following the rape survivor and her two aunts meeting a car crash. The aunts, one of whom was a key witness in the case, died in the crash while the rape complainant is still battling for her life in AIIMS, Delhi.

The woman’s family has alleged that Sengar and his associates orchestrated the accident and have issued numerous threats. Following outrage over the crash, trial in the cases against Sengar was shifted to Delhi by the Supreme Court.

Recently, a Delhi court had said Kuldeep Singh Sengar, being a legislator, has to be tried as a public servant and framed fresh charges against him for allegedly raping a minor in Unnao in 2017.

The charges framed under section 3 and 4 (sexual assault against a child and its punishment) of the POCSO Act on August 9, were modified to section 5 (c) and 6 (public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child and its punishment) of the Act.

The court had on August 9 put on trial the MLA, expelled from BJP. It had said that prima facie charges were found against Sengar for allegedly conspiring with co-accused Shashi Singh to bring the girl to the legislator's residence on the pretext of getting her a job, sexually assaulting her and threatening to harm her and her family members if she disclosed the incident to anyone.

Sengar, a four-time legislator, has also been charged with murder of the girl’s father to deter and silence the Unnao rape survivor so that she cannot pursue the complaint.