Kuldeep Sengar did not walk out of jail; photo of Unnao rape convict outside Tihar Jail is AI-generated

A photograph of ex-BJP MLA and Unnao rape-convict Kuldeep Singh Sengar being garlanded by a man in saffron clothing outside Delhi’s Tihar Jail is viral. He is surrounded by a group of men, including police officers.

The photo was circulated following the Delhi high court decision on December 23 suspending the life sentence of Sengar, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2017 Unnao rape case. The court also granted him conditional bail in the case. This led to public outrage across the country, with the Unnao rape survivor herself claiming that she felt ‘extremely unsafe‘ following the order.

An X user named Rukshana Sayed (@Umm_e_meeran1), who claims to be an advocate at Bombay high court, posted the photo on December 26, writing that the ‘Unnao rapist’ had been released and garlanded by the ‘BJP government.’ (Archive)

Dear World, look at him. The Unnao rapist was released and garlanded by the BJP government…!!#UnnaoCase https://t.co/NsdSozVe0i pic.twitter.com/g1hMi9bNZ1

— Adv Rukhsana Sayed (@Umm_e_meeran1) December 25, 2025

Another user, @SirKazamJeevi, posted the viral photo, which was viewed close to 1.5 lakh views at the time of this article being written. (Archive)

This photo has four things
Rapist + Garlanding + BJP + Saffron

Under Modi, BJP’s contribution; connecting sanatan with rapists pic.twitter.com/JWdIdkD5au

— SirKazam {blu tik} (@SirKazamJeevi) December 25, 2025

Congress leader and Karnataka cabinet minister Priyank Kharge shared the image and then deleted it.

Several other users, like @vibione, @TheRFTeam, @IndLibertarians also posted the viral photo on X. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Screenshots below:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Fact Check

First of all, Sengar never walked out of jail. Even though the high court had put a suspension on his jail term in the rape case, he was serving a 10-year jail term in another case linked to the death of the Unnao rape victim’s father in 2018.

Additionally, on December 29, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant stayed the high court decision till it heard CBI’s appeal against thee HC order.

All major media outlets, including The Hindu, The Indian Express, Deccan Herald, reported that the Supreme Court had stayed the high court order.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Readers should note that as mentioned earlier, even without the SC intervention, Sengar would not have walked out of jail on December 25 (the day when the image went viral) because of the other case in which he was serving a jail term.

Now, on closer inspection of the viral photo, we noticed several elements that suggest it is AI generated.

First, the logo of Google Gemini is visible at the bottom right corner.

Secondly, the hand of one of the supporters assembled around Sengar appear to be distorted, which is a typical feature of AI-generated images.

To be sure, we also ran the image through HIVE’s AI detection tool, which showed a 99.9% possibility of it containing AI-generated content.

To sum up, 2017 Unnao rape convict Kuldeep Singh Sengar has not been released from jail. The photograph showing him being garlanded outside Delhi’s Tihar Jail is AI-generated.