Delhi High Court Grants Bail to Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Suspends Life Sentence in Unnao

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case, suspending his life sentence while his appeal against conviction remains pending.

A Bench comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidynathan Shankar passed the order in Kuldeep Singh Sengar v Central Bureau of Investigation and Anr, imposing stringent conditions on the convict’s release.

As part of the bail terms, Sengar has been barred from entering within a five-kilometre radius of the survivor and has been directed to remain in Delhi for the entire duration of his bail. He has also been ordered to report to the police every Monday. The court warned that any violation of these conditions would lead to cancellation of bail.

Sengar was convicted in December 2019 for raping a 17-year-old girl and was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of ₹25 lakh. The prosecution had alleged that the survivor, a minor at the time, was kidnapped and raped by Sengar between June 11 and June 20, 2017, before being allegedly sold for ₹60,000 and later recovered from the Maakhi police station.

The Central Bureau of Investigation further claimed that following her recovery, the survivor was threatened and pressured by police officials acting on Sengar’s instructions to remain silent. An FIR was eventually registered against him for rape, kidnapping, criminal intimidation and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was arrested on the directions of the Allahabad High Court.

In August 2019, the Supreme Court transferred the trial in four cases linked to the Unnao rape matter to Delhi, citing concerns over fairness and delay, and ordered that proceedings be conducted on a day-to-day basis.

While awarding the maximum sentence, the trial court had observed that Sengar, as an elected public representative, had gravely betrayed public trust and that no mitigating circumstances existed in his favor.

The case had drawn national attention after a truck rammed into the vehicle carrying the survivor in 2019, killing two of her aunts and leaving her and her lawyer critically injured. Although a separate case was registered against Sengar in connection with the crash, a Delhi court discharged him in December 2021, citing lack of prima facie evidence.

Sengar’s appeal against conviction continues to remain pending before the Delhi High Court. The grant of bail, though legally rooted in principles governing suspension of sentence, is expected to attract close scrutiny given the case’s history and its broader implications for public confidence in the justice system.