The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court order suspending the life sentence of former Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case involving a minor, Live Law reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices JK Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih was hearing a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation challenging the December 23 High Court order.
The bench asked Sengar’s counsel to file a response in four weeks.
The court also directed that the woman be given legal aid, The Hindu reported.
The High Court had suspended the sentence and granted bail to Sengar while the former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA’s appeal against conviction is being heard. However, Sengar was directed not to travel within a five-km radius of the complainant’s home.
Despite the High Court order, Sengar was to remain in jail as he is also serving a 10-year sentence in connection with the custodial death of the complainant’s father and has not been granted bail in that case.
The High Court had observed that, on the face of it, the facts of the case did not fulfil the conditions required to apply the stricter offence of “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” under Section 5 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. This was because Sengar did not fall within the definition of a “public servant”, it said.
Section 5 of the Pocso Act sets out conditions in which a “penetrative sexual assault” against a child is treated as a more “aggravated” offence. An aggravated offence is treated as serious because it is committed under special or severe circumstances that make the crime graver than usual.
Under the Act, an offence becomes “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” when it is committed by persons holding positions of authority, such as a public servant or a police officer within their jurisdiction, members of security forces, or staff of hospitals or prisons.
An aggravated offence carries a minimum sentence of 20 years, which can be extended up to life imprisonment, under the Pocso Act.
In 2019, the trial court convicted Sengar, noting that since he was an MLA at the time of the incident, he qualified as a “public servant” under Pocso. This made the offence a serious one and attracted a harsher punishment.
Thereafter, Sengar was sentenced to life imprisonment. His appeal against conviction and sentence had been pending before the High Court since 2020.
On December 23, the High Court rejected the trial court’s reasoning. It held that Sengar, as an elected MLA at the time of the incident, could not be treated as a “public servant” under the Pocso Act.
Security personnel had on December 23 and December 24 forcefully stopped the complainant in the rape case and her family members from protesting in Delhi against the High Court order. They were detained at the Kartavya Path police station for around an hour.
On Saturday, the Delhi Police detained Congress leader Mumtaz Patel and other protesters who had been holding a sit-in near the Parliament complex to oppose the High Court order.
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