Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Feb 7: The Supreme Court is expected to take up the bail application of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar on February 9 in the custodial death case of the Unnao rape survivor’s father, a lawyer said on Saturday. Sengar is currently serving a 10-year jail term in the case.
The former legislator’s plea challenges a Delhi High Court order that had rejected his request for suspension of the sentence. On January 19, Justice Ravinder Dudeja, presiding over a single-judge bench, dismissed Sengar’s application, citing the seriousness of the offence, his prior criminal record, and the absence of any new developments. The judge noted that Sengar had already served around 7.5 years of his sentence but observed that delays in his appeal were partly due to his own repeated filings, including prior pleas to suspend the sentence. The High Court directed that the appeal be decided on its merits and expeditiously.
Sengar was convicted in March 2020 by a Delhi court for conspiring in the custodial death of the victim’s father and sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The Supreme Court had transferred the trial, along with other cases linked to the Unnao incident, from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi in August 2019, ordering that proceedings be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
The case stems from April 2018, when the father of the minor rape victim was allegedly assaulted by Sengar’s aides in Unnao. He was arrested the following day on arms possession charges and later died in custody due to multiple injuries.
Earlier, in June 2024, the Delhi High Court had rejected a similar plea, stating that the gravity of the offence, Sengar’s criminal antecedents, and the potential impact on public confidence in the justice system precluded suspension of the sentence. In December 2019, Sengar was also convicted in the minor rape case and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Recently, the Delhi High Court had suspended his life sentence in the 2017 Unnao rape case and granted him bail pending appeal. However, the Supreme Court stayed the operation of that order, citing the “peculiar facts” of the case, ensuring that Sengar remains in custody.