India’s top court has ordered a former lawmaker to remain in jail in connection with a rape case :
India’s Supreme Court has paused the implementation of a contentious order that had suspended the life sentence of a former legislator convicted of raping a minor. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, once a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was convicted in 2019 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. However, last week the Delhi High Court suspended his sentence and granted him conditional bail.
Sengar, though, remained behind bars in a separate case linked to the death of the survivor’s father. The High Court’s decision triggered widespread anger and protests, including demonstrations by the survivor and her mother. The crime, committed against a 17-year-old girl in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, is regarded as one of the most brutal cases in recent Indian history. The survivor, whose identity is protected by law, alleged that she approached Sengar for a job in June 2017, after which she was kidnapped and repeatedly raped over several days by him and others. Her case drew national attention in 2018, a year after the assault, when she attempted self-immolation, accusing the police of failing to act. At the time, Sengar was a powerful BJP politician, with the party in power both in the state and at the Centre. He was later expelled from the party. Months before his rape conviction in December 2019, the survivor narrowly escaped a suspicious car crash that killed two of her aunts and left her lawyer critically injured. The family also accused Sengar and his associates of assaulting her father in April 2018. While five men were charged in that case, her father was also arrested for illegal possession of firearms and later died in prison. In March 2020, Sengar was convicted of culpable homicide in connection with the father’s death and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
The Delhi High Court’s recent order granting bail in the rape case hinged on whether the offence qualified as an “aggravated” assault under the POCSO Act. The law treats sexual assault as aggravated, warranting harsher punishment, if committed by someone in a “position of trust or authority,” such as a public servant or security personnel. Sengar’s lawyers argued that legislators are not explicitly listed as public servants under the Act. Accepting this view, the High Court ruled that without the aggravated charge, the mandatory minimum sentence was seven years—already served by Sengar—and therefore suspended his life sentence and granted bail. This decision sparked nationwide outrage. The survivor, her family, and activists staged protests at Delhi’s India Gate, with the woman saying she feared for her safety if Sengar were released. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which handled the probe, challenged the High Court ruling in the Supreme Court, asserting that an elected legislator holds a “constitutional position of trust and authority” and should be treated as a public servant under the law. On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s order until it hears the matter. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant noted that the top court usually refrains from staying bail orders without hearing the accused, but said the present case involved “peculiar facts and circumstances,” given that Sengar is also serving a sentence for the culpable homicide of the survivor’s father and remains in custody in that case.
