NEW DELHI: A day after the Delhi High Court suspended the life sentence awarded by a trial court to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case, the survivor on Wednesday said she would move the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, she and her mother staged a protest near Mandi House against the HC verdict.
Earlier in the day, the duo met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after alleging ill-treatment by Delhi Police. On Tuesday night, the survivor and her mother were reportedly forcefully removed by police from a protest site near India Gate.
Speaking to the media, she said no one from the government came forward to help her while Rahul Gandhi promised to get a top lawyer to fight the case in the Supreme Court.
The survivor said the HC’s decision to suspend Sengar’s jail term is kaal (death) for her family. “If the convict gets bail in a case like this, how will the country’s daughters remain safe? For us, this decision is no less than kaal,” she said.
In its order on Tuesday, the HC granted bail to Sengar with conditions. It directed him not to come within a 5-km radius of the survivor’s residence.
Sengar, who is currently in jail, will not be immediately released as he is also serving a 10-year term in the custodial death case of the survivor’s father. He is yet to get bail in that case. The survivor was a minor when she was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017.
Deploring the alleged ill treatment meted out to the survivor during her protest in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi said she is being punished for seeking justice.
“Is such treatment of a gang-rape survivor appropriate? The fact that her perpetrator 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,” he said in a social media post.
“Bail for rapists and treating survivors like criminals—what kind of justice is this?” he asked.