Unnao rape: Delhi HC refuses to extend Kuldeep Singh Sengar's interim bail
New Delhi, Jan 20 (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to further extend the interim bail granted to expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar on medical grounds in the Unnao rape cases.
The politician, who was directed to surrender on January 20, failed to secure the relief from a division bench in the main rape case, after it was noted that his application seeking extension was not supplied to the survivor.
"Take him into custody. This application has not been served," said a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur.
The counsel for the rape survivor alleged that he was only given an application seeking an "early hearing".
Subsequently, in the case pertaining to the custodial death of the survivor's father, Justice Vikas Mahajan observed that in view of the stand taken by the division bench, extending the interim relief in this case would serve no purpose.
"If the division bench has refused, it would not serve any purpose. You surrender," the judge said.
The senior counsel appearing for Sengar told Justice Mahajan that he would surrender before the authorities in the evening.
"Today, he is surrendering at 5:30 (pm)," he said.
The senior lawyer, however, argued on the issue of suspension of the 10-year jail sentence in the custodial death case, saying Sengar has already undergone a substantial period in prison during the pendency of his appeal against the conviction.
"Only one year and 10 months remain," he said, adding that denying the relief in the case would be a "travesty of justice".
Sengar, who is serving a life term in the main rape case, was granted a two-week interim bail in early December last year on account of his health. The relief was subsequently extended by another month.
On January 17, while recusing itself from hearing the plea for extending the interim bail period, another high court bench had refused to grant the politician any relief and directed him to surrender.
The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) counsel had opposed the grant of further extension and said while extending the interim bail by a month on December 20, the high court had clarified that no further extension shall be granted to Sengar and asked him to surrender before the jail superintendent on January 20.
Sengar's counsel sought a further extension on the ground that the politician was scheduled to undergo an eye surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on January 24.
Sengar's plea for extending the interim bail period formed part of his appeal against the December 2019 trial court verdict in the rape case, which is pending before the high court. He has sought quashing of the trial court verdict.
To secure his release, he had also sought an extension of the interim bail by filing a plea in the appeal against his conviction in the case of custodial death of the survivor's father.
The minor 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 Supreme Court's directions on August 1, 2019.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
