The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected a petition filed by expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar seeking the suspension of his 10-year jail term in a matter pertaining to the custodial death of the complainant’s father in the Unnao rape case, Live Law reported.

This came nearly a month after the High Court on December 23 suspended Sengar’s life sentence in the rape case during the pendency of his appeal against his conviction in the matter. Despite the order, Sengar was to remain in jail as he was also serving the 10-year sentence in connection with the custodial death case.

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However, the Supreme Court stayed this High Court order on December 29.

On Monday, Justice Ravinder Dudeja noted that Sengar had spent nearly seven and a half years in custody out of the total punishment of 10 years in the custodial death case and that there had been a delay in deciding his appeal against his conviction, Bar and Bench reported.

However, the judge said that the delay was partly because of Sengar, who has filed several applications.

Dudeja, while rejecting the expelled BJP leader’s petition, took into account his criminal antecedents and also said that there had been no new development in the case, Live Law reported.

The case

In December 2019, a trial court in Delhi convicted Sengar and sentenced him to life for raping a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao in 2017. She was a minor at the time.

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In March 2020, Sengar and his brother, among others, were also sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for the killing of the woman’s father in judicial custody.

The killing had taken place after the father had been arrested in April 2018 allegedly at Sengar’s behest under the Arms Act. He died in custody on April 9, 2018.

In June 2024, the High Court rejected the petition filed by Sengar for the suspension of his sentence in the custodial death case, Live Law reported.

The petition rejected on Monday was his second attempt to secure interim relief in the matter.