New Delhi, December 26 (IANS). The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order suspending the life sentence of former MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and granting him bail in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
The Special Leave Petition (SLP), filed under Article 136 of the Constitution, challenges the December 23 order of the Delhi High Court, in which Kuldeep Singh Sengar was granted bail by accepting his plea to suspend his sentence pending his appeal.
Earlier, it was revealed that both CBI and the victim’s family are preparing to challenge the order of Delhi High Court in the Supreme Court.
The CBI had strongly opposed Sengar’s plea before the Delhi High Court, highlighting the gravity of the crime and the potential risks associated with it.
In the order passed on Tuesday, a bench of Justice Subramaniam Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar of the Delhi High Court suspended Sengar’s life imprisonment pending the appeal and granted him conditional bail with strict conditions.
However, despite getting bail in the rape case, the chances of Sengar’s immediate release are slim as he is serving a separate sentence in other cases related to the death of the victim’s father.
The Unnao rape case had created huge outrage across the country.
In December 2019, the trial court had convicted Sengar of kidnapping and raping a minor girl and sentenced him to imprisonment, and also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh.
The Supreme Court had earlier transferred all the cases related to this incident from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi and directed to hear the case on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, on Friday, family members of the Unnao rape victim and women’s rights activists demonstrated outside the Delhi High Court against the suspension of life imprisonment of Kuldeep Sengar.
Raising slogans and holding placards, the protesters said the bail order has shaken public confidence and given a wrong message about crimes against women.
–IANS
AMT/DKP