Overview
- Two advocates, Anjale Patel and Pooja Shilpkar, filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Delhi High Court’s December 23 order suspending Sengar’s life sentence in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
- The CBI has stated it will move the Supreme Court against the suspension of sentence and conditional bail granted by the High Court.
- Despite the relief in the rape case, Sengar stays in jail because he is serving a 10-year sentence for the custodial death of the survivor’s father and has not secured bail in that matter.
- Protesters, including the survivor’s mother and women’s rights groups, rallied outside the Delhi High Court as police warned that demonstrations at the site were prohibited.
- The High Court’s interim order cited a prima facie view that Sengar may not qualify as a public servant under POCSO and noted over seven years already spent in custody, while imposing strict conditions such as a Rs 15 lakh bond, three sureties, a five-kilometre exclusion zone, no contact with the survivor, and a requirement to remain in Delhi.