A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court
challenging a Delhi High Court order suspending the jail term of expelled BJP
leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
The petition filed by advocates Anjale Patel and
Pooja Shilpkar has sought a stay on the high court order.
They contended that the HC passed the order without
considering that the trial court observed that Sengar must remain in jail for
the rest of his natural life.
The HC has committed a grave error in law as well as
on facts in granting bail/suspension of sentence to Sengar despite his serious
criminal antecedents and his established involvement in the heinous offences of
rape, they said.
"The High Court failed to appreciate the
material evidence relied upon by the prosecution which clearly demonstrates the
barbarity and brutality of the accused, coupled with his demonstrated muscle
power, financial influence and criminal propensity, as evidenced from the fact
that even while the victim's father was under judicial custody, the accused
orchestrated and executed victim's father murder to silence the family and
frustrate the due course of justice," the plea said.
On December 23, the HC suspended the jail term of
Sengar, who is serving life imprisonment in the Unnao rape case, saying he has
already served seven years and five months in prison.
Sengar's sentence has been suspended by the high
court 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 will, however, remain in jail since he is also
serving 10 years' imprisonment in the custodial death case of the victim's
father and has not been granted bail in that case.
Imposing several conditions, the HC directed Sengar,
who kidnapped and raped the survivor when she was a minor, to furnish a
personal bond of Rs 15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount.
It also directed him not to come within a 5-km
radius of the survivor's residence in Delhi and not to threaten her or her
mother. Violation of any of the conditions would lead to the cancellation of
bail, the HC said.
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.
Sengar's appeal against his conviction in the case
of the custodial death of the survivor's father is also pending, where he has
sought suspension of sentence on the ground that he has already spent a
substantial time in jail.