CBI moves SC against Delhi HC order suspending Kuldeep Sengar's sentence in Unnao rape case
The central agency has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the apex court on Friday, December 16, against the Delhi High Court order
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court’s decision to suspend the sentence of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kuldeep Singh Senger in the 2017 Unnao rape case till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the case.
“CBI Vs Kuldeep Singh Senger, special leave petition filed on Friday before the Supreme Court against the orders of Delhi high court which suspended the sentence and granted bail to accused K S Senger in Unnao rape case,” an official spokesperson of the agency said.
The spokesperson recalled that Senger was convicted to life imprisonment and fined ₹25 lakh in December 2019.
“He filed an appeal against the conviction before the Delhi HC in January 2020 and a petition for suspension of sentence in March 2022. This petition was vehemently opposed by CBI and the victim through their counsels,” the CBI spokesperson said.
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On December 23, a bench of the high court’s justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidynathan Shankar noted that Sengar had already undergone the minimum punishment prescribed under Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act before it was amended in 2019.
“The appellant was sentenced for the remainder of his life, and as on November 30, 2025, he has spent about 7 years and 5 months under incarceration, which is more than the minimum punishment prescribed under Section 4 of the Pocso Act, as it existed at the time when the offence was committed,” the high court noted.
To be sure, Senger remains in jail as he is also convicted for 10 years imprisonment in another CBI case for murder.
Without going into the specifics of the appeal, an officer who didn’t want to be named said the agency has contended that the high court erred in suspending the sentence, as the rape survivor’s testimony and evidence collected by it had conclusively established his role, based on which the trial court had convicted him in December 2019.
In his December 2019 conviction order, the trial court judge had noted that “the evidence given by the victim that she was assaulted is unblemished, truthful and of sterling quality to arrive at the conclusion that she was sexually assaulted by accused Kuldeep Singh Senger,” said a second officer.
Also Read: HC suspends Sengar’s jail term in Unnao rape case
The high court relied on a technical yet far-reaching question of statutory interpretation: whether a legislator is a “public servant” under the Pocso Act.
At the heart of the controversy lies the court’s prima facie finding that Sengar, despite being an elected MLA at the time of the offence, does not fall within the category of “public servant” under Section 5(c) of POCSO or Section 376(2)(b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which provides for the punishment of imprisonment for remainder of his natural life.
A public servant has a higher sentence than a person who is not a public servant. If the accused is not a “public servant”, the offence falls under Section 4 of POCSO, which prescribes a minimum of 7 years' rigorous imprisonment (10 years under the 2019 amendment), extendable to life, instead of the minimum of 20 years to life imprisonment under Section 5.
