NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal by the Unnao rape survivor seeking the death penalty for former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar in the custodial death case of her father, observing that she failed to show "sufficient cause" for condonation of a delay of 1,945 days.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja ruled that the appeal against the trial court’s 2020 decision to convict and sentence Sengar, his brother Jaideep Sengar and others in the case was filed after an "unexplained" delay of 1,945 days.
Calling it a case of "deliberate inaction and negligence", the bench observed that the deceased’s daughter was aware of the outcome and was "actively participating" in connected proceedings but "consciously chose not to avail the statutory remedy of appeal within the prescribed period of limitation" despite the availability of legal advice from her advocate.
It added that entertaining a belated appeal seeking enhancement of conviction and sentence would seriously prejudice the rights of the accused, as he would be exposed to the uncertainty of prolonged litigation and the possibility of aggravated penal consequences long after the trial concluded.
"The grounds urged in the application, namely financial constraints, issues relating to accommodation, alleged physical debilitation, and assertions of threats or harassment, do not inspire confidence at the stage of considering the application for condonation of delay.
"These grounds are vague in nature, unsupported by any documentary material, and do not disclose the period during which such circumstances prevailed. Mere assertions, without substantiation, cannot constitute 'sufficient cause'," the court observed.
"The delay being gross, unexplained, and attributable to negligence, the application deserves to be dismissed. Since the application for condonation of delay is dismissed, consequently, the captioned appeal is also dismissed as barred by limitation," the court ruled.
Senior advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared for Jaideep Sengar and submitted that the victim had been participating in the proceedings since the very beginning and there was no ground to condone the delay in filing the appeal.
The survivor’s counsel, Mehmood Pracha, earlier argued that she was living under adverse conditions and it was a "miracle" that she was able to pursue other cases.
Sengar’s counsel, advocate Kanhaiya Singhal, said the present case was an example of conscious inaction.
CBI counsel said the agency had accepted the order of conviction and sentence passed by the trial court and left the present issue to the court.
On February 19, the court had issued notice to Sengar and other convicts on the survivor’s plea seeking condonation of a delay of over 1,940 days in filing the appeal against the 2020 trial court order on conviction and sentencing.
She sought enhancement of their sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment in the case to the death sentence.
The appeal prayed that Sengar and other convicts should be held guilty under Section 302 of the IPC for murder and sentenced to death, and that the trial court’s decision, which found them guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, should be modified.
Sengar was convicted of raping the minor survivor and sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his life on December 20, 2019.
The girl was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor.
On March 13, 2020, Sengar, along with his brother Jaideep Sengar alias Atul Singh, was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the trial court, which also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh, in the custodial death case of the rape survivor’s father.
The girl’s father was arrested at the behest of the accused under the Arms Act and died in custody on April 9, 2018, owing to police brutality.
The trial court had said "no leniency" could be shown for killing a family’s "sole bread earner".
The trial court, however, did not hold the accused guilty of murder under the IPC and awarded the maximum sentence of 10 years for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder to the convicts under Section 304 of the IPC after holding that there was no intention to kill.
The case was transferred to Delhi from the trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019.
(With inputs from PTI)