India, Dec. 27 -- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) escalated the Unnao rape case to the Supreme Court on December 16 by filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Delhi High Court's order suspending expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar's life imprisonment. Convicted in December 2019 for raping a minor in 2017, Sengar was sentenced to life and fined Rs25 lakh. He appealed in January 2020 and sought sentence suspension in March 2022, opposed fiercely by CBI and the victim.

A Delhi HC bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar suspended the sentence on December 23, noting Sengar had served about 7 years and 5 months by November 30, 2025, exceeding the pre-2019 POCSO Act Section 4 minimum of 7 ye...