Investigative agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said it will immediately challenge the suspension of life sentence and bail to former BJP MLA and rape accused, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in the Supreme Court.
The decision was taken after studying the orders of a division bench of the Delhi High Court in the Unnao rape case of 2017, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that an SLP would be filed at the earliest in the Supreme Court against the orders.
Sengar had filed an appeal against his life sentence, which was vehemently opposed by the CBI and the family of the victim before the high court.
“The CBI filed timely replies and written arguments in this matter. The family of the victim has also opposed the petition, citing safety and threats. The CBI will immediately challenge this order,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court suspended the jail term of Sengar, who was serving life imprisonment in the 2017 Unnao rape case, saying he has already served seven years and five months in prison. However, the accused will remain in jail as he is also serving a 10-year term for the custodial death of the rape survivor’s father.
The rape survivor and her mother sat in protest against the order, but were forcefully taken away by the Delhi Police late Wednesday evening. Later, accompanied by her mother, the survivor met both Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and urged them to help her get a top lawyer to fight the case against Sengar in the Supreme Court, which Rahul Gandhi promised to do.
Also Read: Unnao rape case: Survivor to move SC against Delhi HC order
Rahul Gandhi slammed the police for using force against the mother-daughter, saying it is shameful that the survivor is being repeatedly harassed and living in fear. In a democracy, raising a voice of dissent is a right and suppressing it is a crime, he added.
“Is such treatment of a gang-rape survivor appropriate? Is it her ‘fault’ that she gathered courage to raise her voice for justice? The fact that her perpetrator (former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sengar) has been granted bail is extremely disappointing and shameful – especially when the survivor is being repeatedly harassed and is living under the shadow of fear,” the former Congress chief said in a post in Hindi on X.
“Bail for rapists and treating survivors like criminals – what kind of justice is this? We are not just becoming a dead economy – with such inhuman incidents, we are also turning into a dead society,” he further wrote.
Meanwhile, till the pendency of Sengar’s appeal challenging his conviction and sentencing in the rape case, a bench of the Delhi High Court imposed certain conditions for the bail including directing the accused 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.
The bench, comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, also directed Sengar to furnish a personal bond of ₹15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount.
Sengar was convicted of kidnapping and raping the girl in 2017, 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.
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