The Delhi High Court has granted interim bail till February 4 to Kuldeep Singh Sengar, an expelled BJP leader and convict in the Unnao rape case, to undergo eye surgery.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar suspended Sengar’s sentence and said his cataract surgery is scheduled for Tuesday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre in Delhi. The court has directed Sengar to surrender before jail authorities on February 5.
The bench said, “We are of the view that the sentence should be suspended for the applicant’s surgery, fixed for February 4, 2025, on conditions similar to those specified in the order dated December 20, 2024. The applicant shall surrender before the jail superintendent on February 5, 2025.
Sengar’s counsel told the court that due to circumstances beyond his control, the surgery could not be performed on the scheduled date and as such, two days’ extension was required for his admission to AIIMS.
The survivor’s lawyer had opposed the plea saying there was no end to interim bail granted to Sengar. This extension application was part of his ongoing appeal against the trial court’s December 2019 verdict in the rape case, where he has challenged his conviction and sentence.
The case pertains to the allegations of kidnapping and rape of a minor girl by Sengar in 2017. In pursuance to an August 1, 2019, Supreme Court order, the case was transferred from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi along with other connected matters.
