The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday withdrew the candidature of Sangeeta Sengar, the wife of former party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a convict in the Unnao rape case, reported PTI.

The party had fielded from Fatehpur Chaurasi Tritaya. She has been the zila panchayat chairperson of Unnao since 2016.

Uttar Pradesh BJP President Swatantra Dev Singh, who confirmed the cancellation of Sengar’s candidature, said that the Unnao party chief was asked to submit three fresh names instead.

Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls will be held in four phases from April 15. Votes will be counted on May 2. Unnao will go to polls on April 26.

Unnao rape case

In March 2020, a court in Delhi convicted Kuldeep Sengar of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the death of the father of the woman who accused him of raping her in 2017. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December for the rape, and was also ordered to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the complainant.

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Sengar was convicted of rape under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child. Multiple cases were registered in connection with the woman and the crimes committed against her.

The woman’s father was arrested in an illegal arms case, in which he was later found to have been framed, in April 2018. He died in judicial custody in Unnao on April 9, a day after his daughter tried attempted suicide outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath’s house as no action had been taken against Sengar. A few days later, a murder case was filed against Sengar, his brother and nine others.

The autopsy report of the 55-year-old listed multiple abrasions near the abdomen, buttocks, thighs, above and below knee joints and arms – indicating that his death may have been caused by a physical assault. His gastrointestinal tract had also been severely infected. The father was in judicial custody from April 4, after he got into a fight with the aides of the former MLA’s brother, Atul Sengar.

The woman was involved in a car crash in July 2019 in which two of her relatives – one of them an important witness in the rape case – were killed. The complainant and her lawyer were also severely injured, and the family had alleged Sengar was behind the car crash.