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Earlier High Court held that the facts did not meet criteria for ‘aggravated penetrative sexual assault’, ruling Sengar was not a ‘public servant’ under Pocso Act.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order suspending the life sentence of former Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case involving a minor.

According to Live Law, the CBI has challenged the High Court’s decision to suspend Sengar’s sentence and grant him bail while his appeal against conviction is pending. The court had imposed conditions on the bail, directing the former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator not to travel within a five-kilometre radius of the complainant’s residence.

Earlier this week, the High Court observed that the facts of the case did not, prima facie, satisfy the requirements for invoking the offence of “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” under Section 5 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The court said Sengar did not fall within the definition of a “public servant” under the law.

Section 5 of the Pocso Act specifies circumstances in which “penetrative sexual assault” is treated as an aggravated offence, including cases where the crime is committed by persons in positions of authority such as public servants, police officers acting within their jurisdiction, members of the security forces, or staff of hospitals and prisons.

An offence categorised as “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” carries a minimum punishment of 20 years in prison, which may extend to life imprisonment.

In 2019, the trial court had convicted Sengar and held that he qualified as a “public servant” because he was an MLA at the time of the incident, attracting a harsher sentence. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. His appeal has been pending before the High Court since 2020.

However, the High Court rejected the trial court’s interpretation, ruling that an elected MLA could not be treated as a “public servant” under the Pocso Act.

Meanwhile, security personnel on Tuesday and Wednesday stopped the complainant and her family members from holding protests in Delhi against the High Court order. They were detained for about an hour at the Kartavya Path police station, the Hindustan Times reported.

In a related case, Sengar and his brother Jaideep Singh Sengar, along with others, were sentenced in March 2020 to 10 years in prison for the death of the woman’s father while he was in judicial custody.