Supreme Court to hear CBI plea against bail to Sengar tomorrow, 29 Dec

The Supreme Court of India will hear on Monday, 29 December a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision to suspend the life sentence of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case, amid fresh allegations by the survivor that the original investigation was compromised.

According to the apex court’s cause list, the matter will be taken up by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih. The court will hear both the CBI’s appeal and a separate petition filed by advocates Anjale Patel and Pooja Shilpkar challenging the high court’s order.

The hearing comes days after the survivor approached the CBI seeking registration of an FIR against the then investigating officer, alleging that the probe was conducted dishonestly and in collusion with Sengar to weaken the prosecution’s case.

On 23 December, the Delhi High Court suspended Sengar’s life sentence, noting that he had already served seven years and five months in prison. The suspension will remain in force pending his appeal against the December 2019 trial court verdict that convicted him of raping the survivor when she was a minor.

The CBI moved the Supreme Court on 26 December, arguing that the high court erred in granting relief in a case involving grave offences. While the high court imposed stringent conditions — including a personal bond of Rs 15 lakh with three sureties and a bar on Sengar entering a 5-km radius of the survivor’s residence — it warned that any violation would result in cancellation of bail.

Despite the suspension of his life term, Sengar continues to remain behind bars as he is serving a separate 10-year sentence for the custodial death of the survivor’s father. His appeal in that case, in which he has sought suspension of sentence citing long incarceration, is also pending.

Against this backdrop, the survivor’s complaint to the CBI has added a new layer of scrutiny to the case. In a six-page representation, she alleged that the investigating officer carried out the probe with mala fide intent, introducing “deliberate lapses and manipulation of facts” to benefit Sengar and other accused.

She claimed that forged school records were relied upon in the chargesheet, falsely portraying her as a student of a government school and altering her date of birth. She also alleged that the chargesheet incorrectly stated she used a mobile phone belonging to another woman, and that several statements were falsely attributed to her.

The survivor said she had raised similar concerns earlier, but no action was taken against the officer. Citing the trial court’s observations, she alleged that the investigation appeared designed to discredit her testimony and shield the accused.

In its 2019 conviction order, the trial court had questioned aspects of the investigation, observing that “there is more to the story than what meets the eye” and that the manner in which the survivor’s statement was recorded gave the impression that the probe sought to undermine her version.

The CBI, however, had challenged those observations before the Delhi High Court, maintaining during trial proceedings that discrepancies relating to the mobile phone were matters of opinion and did not conclusively establish bias or collusion by the investigating officer.

The rape case and related proceedings were transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi in August 2019 on the directions of the Supreme Court, following concerns over the survivor’s safety and the conduct of the investigation.

With the Supreme Court now set to examine the challenge to the suspension of Sengar’s sentence, the hearing is likely to have wider implications for both the bail order and the renewed allegations surrounding the integrity of the investigation.

With PTI inputs