AAP MLA Sandeep Kumar Targeted, Sacked and Jailed

The rape and corruption case against sacked Aam Aadmi Party minister Sandeep Kumar is on shaky ground.

Sandeep Kumar caught on tape. (Photo Courtesy: Anonymous Source to The Quint)

Wasn’t me – That’s the mainstay of suspended Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sandeep Kumar’s defence in the leaked sex-CD-turned-rape case. Delhi’s former SC/ST and Women and Child Welfare minister’s judicial custody ends on 4 October.

But a month after his arrest, the Delhi Police has failed to file a chargesheet against the sacked AAP minister.

According to sources, the Delhi Police has not yet retrieved the original clip from the electronic devices recovered from Kumar’s residence. While Kumar has claimed in court that a friend he used to work with tried to blackmail him with the video, the police have not yet ascertained when and by whom the pen drives were delivered to media outlets.

Arguing for extending Kumar’s judicial custody on 12 September, the public prosecutor also told the court that the police wanted to find out other such cases of exploitation against Kumar after the complainant claimed there were many more.

Within 48 hours of the news broadcast, the woman seen with Sandeep Kumar in the video lodged a complaint. She reportedly claimed that there was nothing consensual about the activities recorded on the “sex tape”.

Speaking to The Quint, the sacked minister’s lawyer Sanjeev Kumar asks why the complainant, reportedly a mother of two, waited all these years before lodging a complaint.

Why did the police not come in earlier, why did the lady not file the complaint when it happened? The rape complaint followed the CD being discussed threadbare on news channels and the Women’s Commission raising a hue and cry. The clips will be sent to the forensic lab ... you wait and watch how this case against Sandeep Kumar will unravel in the trial phase.

Sanjeev Kumar, Sandeep Kumar’s Lawyer

ABP News was the first to broadcast a short audio and video excerpts from the video. The channel’s follow-up included a few seconds of the video that purportedly proved that the act had been recorded by Kumar without the woman’s knowledge.

That the video was taped several years ago was corroborated by top AAP sources who readily admitted that it was from Kumar’s college days.

The 36-year-old lawyer-turned-politician from Sonipat, Haryana has been booked for rape, causing hurt by means of poison, etc, with intent to commit an offence, publishing and circulating sexually explicit content and under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

During the last hearing, the court had asked why Sandeep Kumar had been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The police responded:

Kumar wanted physical relationship on the pretext of ration card and therefore attracted the Prevention of Corruption Act.

For now, there is no credible proof to indicate that Sandeep Kumar was eliciting sexual favours for ration cards.

(Sources: India Today, Indian Express)