Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict in the Unnao rape case. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The CBI on Friday (December 26, 2025) approached the Supreme Court with a special leave petition (SLP) against the Delhi High Court’s order to suspend the life sentence of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case
This came a day after an appeal had been filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday (December 25) challenging the suspension of prison sentence of the expelled BJP leader.
The decision to file the SLP was taken after studying the orders of a division bench of the Delhi High Court in the Unnao rape case of 2017. It was decided to file an SLP before the Supreme Court at the earliest against the orders of the high court, which granted bail to Sengar after suspending his life sentence, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
Protests against the Delhi HC’s order continued on Friday (December 26) with several women sitting outside the High Court holding placards that sought justice for the survivor.
Sengar’s sentence was put on hold by the High Court on Tuesday (December 23) till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the rape case. He has challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict in the case.
He would however remain in jail since he was also serving 10 years’ imprisonment in the custodial death case of the victim’s father.
He has not been granted bail in that case. The former BJP leader had however separately appealed against his conviction in this case also on the ground that he had already spent a substantial time in jail.
Imposing several conditions for bail, the HC Bench comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar directed Sengar to furnish a personal bond of ₹15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount. It also directed Sengar not to come within a 5-km radius of the victim’s residence in Delhi, and not to issue threats to her or her mother.
Sengar was found guilty of kidnapping and raping the survivor when she was a minor.
The rape case and other connected cases were transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019.
With PTI inputs
Published – December 26, 2025 10:40 pm IST
