The Delhi High Court on Monday granted interim bail
till February 4 to expelled BJP leader and Unnao rape case convict Kuldeep
Singh Sengar for undergoing an eye surgery.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Harish
Vaidyanathan Shankar suspended his sentence, noting that Sengar's cataract
surgery is fixed for Tuesday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(Aiims) here.
The court directed him to surrender before the jail
authorities on February 5.
We are of the opinion that the sentence warrants to
be suspended for the purpose of applicant's medical procedure which is fixed
for February 4, 2025 subject to conditions identical to those set forth in December
20, 2024 order. The applicant shall surrender on February 5 before the jail
superintendent, the bench said.
The court was informed by the leader's counsel that
Sengar's surgery was not performed earlier on the scheduled date due to
circumstances beyond his control.
He submitted that two more days are needed as Sengar
needs to be admitted to the AIIMS for the medical procedure which is now fixed
for February 4.
The court had earlier also granted interim bail to
the politician for the surgery.
The plea was opposed by the survivor's lawyer who
argued that Sengar could not be given interim bail endlessly.
Sengar's plea for extension of interim bail, which
formed part of his appeal against the December 2019 trial court's verdict in
the rape case, is pending before the high court. He has sought setting aside of
his conviction and sentence.
The minor girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped by
Sengar in 2017.
The rape case and other connected cases were
transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of
the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019.