Appeal to national leaders to stop former BJP MLA Sengar’s bail: Unnao rape survivor

The 2017 Unnao rape survivor on Wednesday (December 24, 2025) urged national leaders to intervene to revoke the conditional bail granted to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is serving a life term in the case.

Her appeal came a day after the Delhi High Court suspended Sengar’s sentence and allowed him bail. The survivor met Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi at their residence on Wednesday (December 24).

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“I want to request all the leaders to stop his bail. If in five years, he can be given bail, what hope do women in the country have,” she told presspersons after the meeting.

The survivor said she had requested meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as well.

On Tuesday (December 23) evening, the survivor and her family members were forcibly removed by security personnel while protesting against the court order near India Gate. In a video that has since gone viral on social media, the survivor is seen being dragged and lifted by at least four women Delhi police officers. As she screamed to be released and allowed to speak to the press, the officers shoved her inside a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) vehicle and drove her away from the site.

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Her mother said they were stopped again while they were on their way to meet their lawyer on Wednesday (December 24, 2025). She alleged that CRPF personnel took them on a vehicle. While she was asked to get off midway, she suspected that the security personnel would take her daughter to Ghitorni. “My daughter was taken in a vehicle against her wishes because they did not want us to meet our lawyer, but she (rape survivor) later heard that some senior officer instructed them to let her meet her legal counsel,” the mother told The Hindu.

She said the conditional bail granted to Sengar showed how “justice for the poor in India continues to be a distant dream”. “If Sengar steps out of the jail, he will kill all of us, my husband is already dead,” she added.

The survivor later met with her lawyer in the afternoon before meeting the Gandhis. According to sources, the survivor and her family requested that Mr. Gandhi help them find a senior lawyer to represent them in the Supreme Court. They also requested to be relocated to a Congress-ruled State for better safety.

The survivor’s husband also requested Mr. Gandhi to help him find better employment. The source told The Hindu that both Mr. Gandhi and his mother have agreed to help the survivor and her family with their needs to fight the legal battle and survive.

Taking to social media platform X, Mr. Gandhi expressed shock over the treatment of the rape survivor. Pointing to the video of the survivor being manhandled by the Delhi Police, he asked if such treatment was appropriate.

“Is her ‘fault’ that she has the courage to raise her voice for justice? The fact that the perpetrator (former BJP MLA) has been granted bail is extremely disappointing and shameful — especially when the survivor is being repeatedly harassed, and is living under the shadow of fear. Bail for rapists, and treating survivors like criminals — what kind of justice is this? We are not just becoming a dead economy — with such inhuman incidents, we are also turning into a dead society. In a democracy, raising a voice of dissent is a right, and suppressing it is a crime. The survivor deserves respect, safety and justice — not helplessness, fear and injustice,” Mr. Gandhi said.