Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been disqualified as the member of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, following his conviction in the rape case by a Delhi session’s court in December.
Sengar is the second MLA elected on the BJP ticket in 2017 UP Assembly elections to be disqualified from the membership following conviction in a criminal case. Earlier, BJP MLA from Hamirpur in Bundelkhand region Ashok Chandel was disqualified from the membership of UP Assembly in April 2019 after the Allahabad High Court upheld his conviction in a murder case of 1998, in which four brothers were killed.
In a notification issued by the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday, Sengar has been deemed disqualified with effect from December 20, 2019, and his Bangarmau seat in Unnao has been declared vacant.
The Delhi court had pronounced its verdict of life imprisonment on December 20, 2019 and Sengar has been deemed disqualified from that date. Election Commission sources said the bypolls would be held for Bangarmau seat soon.
Sengar is a four-term MLA, who was accused of rape by a girl from his village (Makhi). The girl attempted self-immolation outside the Chief Minister’s residence in April 2017 after the police did not take action on her complaint.
The rape victim’s father, who was arrested by the police, had died in police custody two days later, after he was beaten up in the lock-up allegedly by Sengar’s brother Atul Sengar. Following public outrage, the Chief Minister had handed over the case to the CBI, and Kuldeep Sengar and his brother Atul apart from others were arrested.
In July 2019, the rape victim had met with a road mishap in Rae Bareli. Her two female relatives had died in the car crash while she and her lawyer were grievously injured.
Both were airlifted to Delhi for treatment and the family alleged that Kuldeep Sengar had masterminded the accident. However, the CBI did not find any evidence of Sengar’s involvement in the accident.
The Supreme Court had ordered that all cases related to the rape case be heard in Delhi, where a session’s court convicted Kuldeep Sengar in the rape case in December and awarded him life sentence.