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New Delhi, 15 May. Former BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh Kuldeep Singh Sengar has received a big blow from the Supreme Court in the case of rape of a minor. In fact, the top has canceled the order of Delhi High Court, in which Sengar’s life imprisonment was stayed in the 2017 rape case in Unnao district of UP.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “We do not agree with the highly technical finding of the High Court that an MLA is not a ‘government servant’ under POCSO.” The Supreme Court did not express any opinion on the merits of the case and directed the High Court to decide on the main appeal within two months.

It is noteworthy that the Unnao rape case again came into national headlines last month when Sengar, who was then representing Bangarmau Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh, got the sentence in the rape case stayed by another bench of the High Court and secured bail pending the appeal against the trial court’s verdict.

In a controversial order, the High Court argued that his status at that time (as an MLA) did not justify the trial court treating him as a ‘government servant’. The bench of Justice Subramaniam Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan also said that POCSO, the law to sexual offenses against children, cannot be applied in this case.

In this sequence, refusing to consider Sengar as a ‘government employee’, the court said that the seven and a half years spent in jail so far is ‘more than the minimum period’ prescribed by law. As a result, the High Court released Kuldeep Sengar on bail with certain conditions. These conditions include a personal bond of Rs 15 lakh, a promise not to leave Delhi, and a promise not to come within five kilometers of the victim.

The release order from the High Court has been widely condemned, while shocking scenes from Delhi, where the victim and her mother were threatened and intimidated by central security forces while trying to protest, have heightened the tensions and anger that have been simmering for the past week.

Following Sengar’s release, clashes broke out between central forces deployed to ‘protect’ the victim and her family members. Some scary scenes also emerged during these clashes, in which the victim’s mother was allegedly forced to jump from a moving bus and then the bus moved ahead with her daughter.

While talking to journalists after that shameful incident, the victim’s mother burst into tears and said, ‘We did not get justice. My daughter has been taken hostage. It seems they want to kill us. A CRPF official later claimed that the survivor was being taken back home ‘under security cover’, although no formal statement was made regarding the mother’s removal from the bus.