Unnao rape case: SC sets aside Delhi HC order suspending life sentence of Kuldeep Sengar

The Supreme Court on Friday set aside an order issued by the Delhi High Court that had suspended the life sentence of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case involving a minor, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the High Court to either decide on the petition filed by the former Uttar Pradesh MLA against his conviction within three months or pass a fresh order on the application seeking the suspension of his sentence, according to Live Law.

The order came on a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the High Court’s decision on December 23 to suspend Sengar’s jail sentence and allow his release during the pendency of his appeal against his conviction in the rape case.

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.

During the hearing on Friday, the Supreme Court disagreed with the High Court’s observation that the offence of “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was not made out against Sengar, Bar and Bench reported.

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 under Section 5 of the Pocso Act as Sengar did not fall within the definition of a “public servant”.

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 Act.

In 2019, a 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.

Disagreeing with the High Court’s argument, the Supreme Court on Friday said that it does “not endorse the hyper-technical conclusion of the High Court”, Bar and Bench reported.

Bagchi noted that “this is a penal legislation which protects children from sexual exploitation”.

On the other hand, Sengar’s counsel asked whether the Pocso Act was applicable at all.

“I am in the position to show that the prosecutrix is not a minor,” the legal news portal quoted his counsel as saying. “The AIIMS [All India Institute Of Medical Sciences] board says she was not a minor. All reports are in his favour still he is in jail.”

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.

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. On January 19, the High Court once again rejected his attempt to secure interim relief in the matter.

Edited by Sneha.