Eight years into the Unnao rape case, Kuldeep Sengar’s daughter has written an emotional open letter, saying her family is exhausted, frightened, and losing faith as legal battles, public outrage, and pressure continue to overshadow due process.
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NEW DELHI: Eight years after the Unnao rape case shook the nation, Ishita Sengar, daughter of former BJP MLA and convict Kuldeep Singh Sengar, has written an emotional open letter addressed to the “Hon’ble Authorities of the Republic of India,” saying her family is “exhausted, frightened, and slowly losing faith” in the justice system.
The letter, shared in a post on X, comes on the same day the Supreme Court stayed a Delhi High Court order that had suspended Kuldeep Sengar’s life sentence in the high-profile Unnao rape case.
In her letter, Ishita Sengar said she is repeatedly reduced to being identified only as “the daughter of a BJP MLA,” which she claims strips her of dignity and humanity.
“As if that alone makes me undeserving of fairness, dignity, or even the right to speak,”
she wrote.
She described facing relentless abuse on social media over the years, including rape and death threats.
“This hatred is not abstract. It is daily. It is relentless,”
she said, adding that the sustained online hostility has deeply affected her mental and emotional well-being.
Ishita Sengar said her family chose silence for years because they trusted institutions and believed justice did not require public spectacle, protests, or social media outrage.
“We waited because we believed that truth does not need spectacle,”
she wrote.
However, she claimed that silence came at a high cost: financial exhaustion, emotional trauma, and social isolation. According to her, the family approached every possible authority and media house but remained unheard.
“Not because the facts were weak. Not because the evidence was lacking. But because our truth was inconvenient,”
she stated.
In her letter, Ishita Sengar expressed concern over what she described as a climate of fear, where public outrage and misinformation overshadow evidence and due process.
“A fear so loud that judges, journalists, institutions, and ordinary citizens are all pressured into silence,”
she wrote.
She stressed that her family is not seeking special treatment or sympathy but only a fair examination of evidence and adherence to the rule of law.
Supreme Court Stays High Court Order
Earlier on Monday, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices JK Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih stayed the Delhi High Court’s decision that had suspended Kuldeep Sengar’s life sentence.
The top court also issued notice to Sengar on a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the suspension of sentence. It directed that the former MLA shall not be released from custody.
The Supreme Court expressed concern over the High Court’s interpretation of the term “public servant” under Section 5 of the POCSO Act, noting that such an interpretation could lead to an “anomalous situation” where elected representatives are excluded while lower-level officials remain covered.
Following the Supreme Court order, Aishwarya Sengar, Kuldeep Sengar’s daughter and a member of his legal team, said the defence was not allowed to argue the case on merits.
She claimed there were inconsistencies in the survivor’s statements regarding timing and age, and cited medical reports and call detail records (CDRs) as part of the defence.
“We couldn’t even start arguing on the merits of the case today,”
she said, urging media outlets not to spread misinformation.
Background of the Unnao Rape Case
Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a former BJP MLA from Unnao, was convicted in 2019 for raping a minor who had approached him in 2017 seeking help for employment. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The case drew nationwide attention due to allegations of abuse of power, custodial lapses, and subsequent incidents, including a car crash in 2019 that killed two of the survivor’s relatives. Kuldeep Sengar’s sentence was suspended by the Delhi High Court because he had already served over seven years in prison, pending appeal.
Concluding her letter, Ishita Sengar appealed for justice grounded in evidence rather than public pressure.
“Please let the law speak without fear. Please let evidence be examined without pressure,”
she wrote.
“I am a daughter who still believes in this country. Please do not make me regret that faith.”
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on Unnao Rape
