'It is fear': Rape-accused Sengar's daughter writes open letter for 'justice' after Supreme Court stays bail

IShita Sengar, girl of Unnao assault case-accused former Bharatiya Janata company (BJP) fellow member Kuldeep Singh Sengar, wrote an open up letter seeking “justice” for her father whose trial she said has made her and the entire family receive “relentless” threats.Ishita, in a long post on social media platform X, said she is writing the letter “as a daughter who is exhausted, frightened, and slowly losing faith, but still holding on to hope because there is nowhere else left to go.”She said people call them “powerful,” and asked “what kind of power leaves a family voiceless for eight years.”The open letter came as the country cheered Supreme Court's stay on the Delhi high court order that granted bail to Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case.The Delhi high court on December 23 suspended the life sentence awarded to expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the case, noting that he has already served seven years and five months in prison.Pronouncing the judgment, a division bench of justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidynathan Shankar directed Sengar to furnish a personal bond of ₹15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount. Sengar had challenged the December 2019 verdict of a trial court that sentenced him to life imprisonment in the rape case.Ishita Sengar's open letterIn her open letter, Ishita Sengar wrote her identity is reduced to “the daughter of a BJP MLA” and that she has been told “countless times on social media that I should be raped, killed, or punished simply for existing.”She alleged the Sengar family has been “stripped of dignity piece by piece”, “abused, mocked, and dehumanised every single day for eight years”.Full text of letterToThe Hon’ble Authorities of the Republic of India,I am writing this letter as a daughter who is exhausted, frightened, and slowly losing faith, but still holding on to hope because there is nowhere else left to go.For eight years, my family and I have waited. Quietly. Patiently. Believing that if we did everything “the right way,” the truth would eventually speak for itself. We trusted the law. We trusted the Constitution. We trusted that justice in this country does not depend on noise, hashtags, or public anger.Today, I write because that faith is breaking.Before my words are even heard, my identity is reduced to a label—“the daughter of a BJP MLA.” As if that erases my humanity. As if that alone makes me undeserving of fairness, dignity, or even the right to speak. People who have never met me, never read a single document, never looked at a single court record, have decided that my life has no value. The Hon’ble Authorities of the Republic of India,I am writing this letter as a daughter who is exhausted, frightened, and slowly losing faith, but still holding on to hope because there is nowhere else left to go.For eight years, my family and I have waited. Quietly. Patiently. Believing that if we did everything “the right way,” the truth would eventually speak for itself. We trusted the law. We trusted the Constitution. We trusted that justice in this country does not depend on noise, hashtags, or public anger.Today, I write because that faith is breaking.Before my words are even heard, my identity is reduced to a label—“the daughter of a BJP MLA.” As if that erases my humanity. As if that alone makes me undeserving of fairness, dignity, or even the right to speak. People who have never met me, never read a single document, never looked at a single court record, have decided that my life has no value.Over these years, I have been told countless times on social media that I should be raped, killed, or punished simply for existing. This hatred is not abstract. It is daily. It is relentless. And it breaks something inside you when you realise that so many people believe you do not even deserve to live.We chose silence not because we were powerful, but because we believed in institutions. We did not hold protests. We did not shout on television debates. We did not burn effigies or trend hashtags. We waited because we believed that truth does not need spectacle.What did that silence cost us?We have been stripped of our dignity piece by piece. We have been abused, mocked, and dehumanised every single day for eight years. We have been drained financially, emotionally, and physically running from one office to another, writing letters, making calls, begging to be heard. There is no door we did not knock on. No authority we did not approach. No media house we did not write to.And yet no one listened.Not because the facts were weak.Not because the evidence was lacking.But because our truth was inconvenient.People call us “powerful.” I ask you what kind of power leaves a family voiceless for eight years? What kind of power means watching your name dragged through mud daily while you sit silently, trusting a system that seems unwilling to even acknowledge your existence?What scares me today is not just injustice, it is fear. A fear deliberately manufactured. A fear so loud that judges, journalists, institutions, and ordinary citizens are all pressured into silence. A fear designed to ensure that no one dares to stand with us, no one dares to listen to us, and no one dares to say, “Let us look at the facts.”Watching this unfold has shaken me deeply. If truth can be drowned so easily by outrage and misinformation, where does someone like me go? If pressure and public frenzy begin to overshadow evidence and due process, what protection does an ordinary citizen truly have?I am not writing this letter to threaten anyone.I am not writing this letter to gain sympathy.I am writing because I am terrified and because I still believe someone, somewhere, will care enough to listen.We are not asking for favour.We are not asking for protection because of who we are.The Unnao rape case survivor on Monday expressed satisfaction and faith in the justice sytem over the Supreme Court staying the Delhi high court order.Hearing a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had challenged the high court's decision, the apex court also issued a notice to Sengar, directing him to file his response."I am very happy with this decision. I have got justice from the Supreme Court. I have been raising my voice for justice from the very beginning," the survivor was quoted as saying by PTI news agency."I do not make any allegations against any court. I have faith in all courts, but the Supreme Court has given me justice and will continue to do so," she said.The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court order that had suspended Sengar's life sentence and granted him bail in the 2017 Unnao rape case.A trial court convicted Sengar in December 2019 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the remainder of his life. Sengar has undergone over seven years and five months of incarceration.The Delhi high court, while granting bail, concluded that the aggravated offence under Section 5(c) was not made out. It considered the length of custody and suspended his sentence.