The CBI will immediately challenge the suspension of life sentence and bail to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case in the Supreme Court, officials said on Wednesday (December 24, 2025).
The decision was taken after studying the orders of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in the Unnao rape case of 2017, a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
It was decided to file an SLP before the Supreme Court at the earliest against the orders of the High Court, which granted bail to Sengar after suspending his life sentence, the CBI spokesperson said.
Sengar, however, will remain in jail as he is also serving a 10-year term for the custodial death of the rape survivor's father.
Sengar had filed an appeal against his life sentence, which was vehemently opposed by the CBI and the family of the victim before the High Court.
“The CBI filed timely replies and written arguments in this matter. The family of the victim has also opposed the petition, citing safety and threats. The CBI will immediately challenge this order,” the statement said.
On Tuesday (December 23, 2025), the Delhi High Court suspended the jail term of expelled BJP leader Sengar, who was serving life imprisonment in the 2017 Unnao rape case, saying he has already served seven years and five months in prison.
The rape survivor and her mother sat in protest against the order, but were forcefully taken away by the Delhi Police.
The issue soon snowballed into a massive political slugfest with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi questioning the move of the police to use force against the mother-daughter.
“Is such treatment of a gang-rape survivor appropriate? Is it her 'fault' that she gathered courage to raise her voice for justice? “The fact that her perpetrator (former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sengar) has been granted bail is extremely disappointing and shameful -- especially when the survivor is being repeatedly harassed and is living under the shadow of fear,” the former Congress chief said in a post in Hindi on X.
“Bail for rapists and treating survivors like criminals — what kind of justice is this? We are not just becoming a dead economy — with such inhuman incidents, we are also turning into a dead society,” he added.
Mr. Gandhi also said that in a democracy, raising a voice of dissent is a right and suppressing it is a crime.
Sengar’s sentence has been suspended by the High Court till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentencing in the rape case.
He challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict in the case.
Imposing several conditions for bail, the bench of Delhi High Court comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar directed Sengar to furnish a personal bond of ₹15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount.
It also directed Sengar not to come within a 5-km radius of the victim’s residence in Delhi, and not to issue threats to her or her mother.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gandhi also met the rape survivor at his mother Sonia Gandhi’s 10, Janpath residence on Wednesday (December 24, 2025).
Accompanied by her mother, the rape survivor met both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and urged them to help her get a top lawyer to fight the case against Sengar in the Supreme Court, which Rahul Gandhi promised to do.
Mr. Gandhi said the rape survivor should be treated with respect and that justice should be ensured to her, instead of subjecting her to “injustice” and “fear”.
Sengar was convicted of kidnapping and raping the girl in 2017, when she was a minor.
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.