The Delhi High Court has refused to suspend the jail sentence of Jaideep Singh Sengar alias Atul Singh, who was convicted in the death case of father of Unnao rape victim.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that Jaideep Sengar has been in judicial custody for a period of about three years, much lower than the half of total sentence awarded to the appellant, which was rigorous imprisonment for ten years.
The High Court dismissed the petition after taking into account the medical condition of the appellant, the severity and gravity of the offence committed by him and the impact of public confidence in Courts for the purpose of deciding his application for suspension of sentence.
Jaideep Sengar was convicted in a case concerning the death of a man, whose 17-year-old daughter was raped by Jaideep’s brother and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district in 2017. Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted for the rape in December 2019.
A trial court had convicted several persons, including the Sengar brothers in March 2020, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder for their role in causing the death of the rape victim’s father.
The trial court noted that Jaideep Sengar was ‘enjoying’ the sadistic pleasure of thrashing the victim’s father and it was under his patronage that the man was paraded throughout the village.
Sengar had approached the High Court for suspension of his prison sentence arguing that he was diagnosed with mouth-cancer and that even after an operation, his condition was bad. He said further that he needed physiotherapy, which was not available in the prison.
The counsel appearing for Senger contended that he has already spent three years in jail out of the ten-year sentence awarded and that the sentences of five others co-accused have already been suspended.
The Court rejected these arguments and said that the convicts whose sentences have been suspended have spent more than half of the total sentence awarded in jail.
Justice Sharma also referred to the report prepared by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) which concluded that the medical condition of Senger was not of a nature that he cannot serve the sentence awarded to him in the jail.
Senger’s appeal against his conviction will be taken up on May 3.