New Delhi. The Supreme Court has stayed the Delhi High Court order suspending the life imprisonment of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case. The Supreme Court has sent notice to Parsengar on CBI’s petition challenging the Delhi High Court decision. Hearing the petition of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the apex court put an interim stay on the bail/sentence suspension granted to Sengar, due to which the High Court order has become ineffective for the time being.
On Monday, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice J.K. A three-member vacation bench of Justice Maheshwari and Justice Augustine George Masih heard the case. Expressing preliminary agreement on the arguments of CBI, the court issued a notice to Kuldeep Singh Sengar and sought his reply. In the petition filed in the Supreme Court, the CBI had challenged the December 23 order of the Delhi High Court, in which Sengar’s life sentence was suspended. The High Court had given relief saying that Sengar has so far served seven years and five months of imprisonment and his appeal is pending.
The CBI argued that the High Court was wrong in saying that Sengar, who was an MLA at the time of the crime, was not a public servant. The agency appealed to the Supreme Court’s L.K. Citing the decision of Advani case, he said that a person holding a constitutional post like MP or MLA is considered a public servant and has more responsibility towards the society and the state. It is noteworthy that despite the order of Delhi High Court, Sengar was going to remain in jail because he is also serving a 10-year sentence in the case of custodial death of the victim’s father and he has not got bail in that case. Now, after the latest order of the Supreme Court, the relief she got in the Unnao rape case has come to a complete halt.