New Delhi: In a major setback for expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case, the Supreme Court on Monday (December 29) stayed the bail order of the Delhi High Court. A vacation bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices J K Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih also issued notice to Sengar seeking his response on the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI's) plea challenging the high court order.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, urged the bench to stay the high court order. The SC bench said it would examine the matter as it required consideration, reported PTI. It also stated that Sengar should not be released from custody following the high court's December 23 order.
On December 23, the Delhi High Court granted conditional bail to the expelled BJP leader in the rape case. The order was passed by a Bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar. The High Court had imposed stringent conditions on Sengar. He has been directed not to enter within a five-kilometre radius of the survivor and to remain in Delhi for the entire period of bail. The court also ordered him to report to the police every Monday, warning that violation of any condition would lead to cancellation of bail.
After the Delhi High Court's order, the survivor and her family protested against the order. The survivor even called the suspension of Sengar's jail term as “kaal (death) for her family”. The expelled BJP leader is also serving 10 years' imprisonment in the custodial death case of the victim's father and was granted bail in that case.
The survivor was a minor when she was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017. She had told PTI over the phone from Delhi that security for her family members, lawyers and witnesses had already been withdrawn and the court's decision had deepened her fears. “If the convict gets bail in cases like this, how will the country's daughters remain safe? For us, this decision is no less than ‘kaal’ (death),” she had said.
