'Let evidence be examined without pressure': Kuldeep Sengar's daughter makes emotional appeal

Dr Ishita Sengar, daughter of convicted former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, on Monday issued an emotional public appeal, saying her family has spent eight years waiting for institutions to hear them, even as their faith in the system is "breaking".

In a detailed letter addressed to "The Hon'ble Authorities of the Republic of India", Ishita Sengar wrote that she was speaking 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," she wrote, adding, "Today, I write because that faith is breaking."

She said her identity is reduced to a label even before her words are heard. "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."

Ishita said she has faced sustained abuse online. "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."

Explaining her family's decision to remain silent for years, she wrote, "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."

She said the cost of that silence has been devastating. "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," she added. "Not because the facts were weak. Not because the evidence was lacking. But because our truth was inconvenient."

Challenging the perception that her family is powerful, she wrote, "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?"

She said fear now defines the situation. "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."

Questioning the protection available to citizens, she added, "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?"

"We are not asking for favour. We are not asking for protection because of who we are. We are asking for justice because we are human," Ishita Sengar wrote, making a direct appeal: "Please let the law speak without fear. Please let evidence be examined without pressure. Please let truth be treated as truth even when it is unpopular."

She ended the letter by saying, “I am a daughter who still believes in this country. Please do not make me regret that faith."

Supreme Court stays bail

The public appeal comes as the Supreme Court on Monday put on hold the Delhi High Court order granting bail to Kuldeep Sengar in the Unnao rape case. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the matter raised "substantial questions of law" and issued notice, making it clear that Sengar would not be released from custody. The court noted that Sengar is already serving a sentence in another criminal case.

The Unnao rape case dates back to 2017, when a minor girl accused then BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao. The case triggered nationwide outrage amid allegations that police initially refused to register an FIR and that the survivor and her family were threatened and harassed.

In April 2018, the survivor attempted self-immolation outside the residence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, alleging inaction by authorities. Following protests, the investigation was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, and the Supreme Court later moved the trial from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi.

In 2019, a Delhi court convicted Sengar of rape and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was also convicted in separate cases linked to the custodial death of the survivor's father and for attempting to influence witnesses.