NEW DELHI — Delhi Police on Saturday detained activist Yogita Bhayana, Congress leader Mumtaz Patel and several other protesters who were staging a sit-in near the Parliament complex to oppose the suspension of the life sentence of Unnao rape convict and expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar, an official said.
The protesters reached the area around 4 pm and sat on the road, raising slogans and demanding the cancellation of the bail granted to Sengar by the Delhi High Court last week, the official said, reported PTI.
Police personnel announced through loudspeakers that the area near Parliament was not a designated place for protests and asked the demonstrators to disperse. When the protesters refused to vacate the spot, they were removed from the site and detained.
The detention came a day after the Unnao rape survivor’s mother, along with activists from the All India Democratic Women’s Association and Yogita Bhayana, staged a protest outside the Delhi High Court.
The survivor’s mother had said she would approach the Supreme Court against the high court’s order and expressed faith in the apex court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday had challenged in the Supreme Court the Delhi High Court order that suspended Sengar’s life sentence and granted him bail in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
The central probe agency filed a Special Leave Petition in the apex court against the high court order, officials said.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the release of Sengar, an expelled BJP MLA, on bail pending disposal of his appeal against his conviction in the rape case.
The court suspended his jail term, noting that he had already served seven years and five months.
His sentence has been suspended till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the case. Sengar has challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict.
Sengar was convicted of kidnapping and raping the girl in 2017 when she was a minor. 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 1 August, 2019.
Despite the bail in the rape case, Sengar will continue to remain in jail as he is also serving a 10-year sentence in connection with the custodial death of the survivor’s father and has not been granted bail in that case.
