LucknowDecember 24, 2025 02:18 PM IST
First published on: Dec 24, 2025 at 01:55 PM IST
The Delhi High Court has suspended the jail term of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is serving life imprisonment in the 2017 Unnao rape case, releasing him on conditional bail.
The court’s Tuesday ruling has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters including a section of civil society. The survivor in the case, her mother and a woman activist Yogita Bhayana held a protest at India Gate in the national capital against the court’s order, who were removed by the Delhi Police.
Sengar was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2019 by a Delhi trial court, which found him guilty under Section 376 (2) (rape) of the IPC and Sections 5(c) & 6 of the POCSO Act for raping a minor girl in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. The case was later probed and prosecuted by the CBI.
Sengar, the ex-BJP MLA from UP’s Bangarmau, had been a turncoat. The four-time lawmaker had regularly changed parties and Assembly constituencies. He was seen as the most prominent Thakur leader in Brahmin-dominated Unnao district.
Sengar, 58, started his political career in 2002 when he was elected as an MLA from Unnao Sadar on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. He joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) before the 2007 Assembly elections. He contested from Bangarmau as an SP candidate and won. In 2012 elections, he contested as an SP candidate from Bhagwant Nagar and won again.
In the middle of the 2017 Assembly election, Sengar joined the BJP and was named as the party’s nominee from Bangarmau. His seat was changed as the party fielded then Speaker Hridya Narain Dixit as its candidate from Bhagwant Nagar. He won the election from the Bangarmau seat.
When Sengar was with the SP, his wife, Sangeeta, was elected Zila Panchayat chairperson. Sengar’s brother Manoj was earlier the head of a block. A BJP leader said Sengar was considered close to former Independent MLA (Kunda) Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya.
“He is the most influential Thakur leader in the entire district. With the combination of Muslims and Thakurs and some other upper castes, he wins the polls. While Brahmins are divided here, Sengar keeps the Thakurs united in his favour by helping them,” a BJP leader from Unnao had said.
It was said that Sengar helped several local people financially to get their support. Another Unnao BJP leader said he offered Rs 10,000 as minimum cash gifts to brides in his constituency.
He is also serving a jail term in the victim’s father custodial death case.