‘Living in fear’: Sengar’s daughter Ishita pens open letter after Supreme Court verdict in Unnao rape case

The Supreme Court stayed the Delhi High Court's order that had suspended the life sentence of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar .

• SC stays Delhi HC order suspending Kuldeep Sengar's life sentence
• Sengar's daughter calls for justice, says family has been voiceless for 8 years
• She alleges receiving threats and being dehumanised due to her father's identity

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Daughter of 2017 Unnao rape case convict Kuldeep Sengar called for justice in an open letter on social media, after the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court's decision, which suspended the life sentence of the expelled BJP MLA.

A three-judge vacation of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices JK Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih stayed the High Court order, noting that Sengar is in jail for another case. It said the operation of the High Court order shall be stayed, and Sengar shall not be released from prison.

In an X post, Sengar's daughter hinted that the SC's decision was based on public outrage, while referring to the Sengar family as "voiceless" for eight years.

She wrote, "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."

Further, she alleged that she received rape and death threats, ultimately silencing her, while she believed in the institutions.

"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," she added.

To 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.… — Dr Ishita Sengar (@IshitaSengar) December 29, 2025

Even though her father was an MLA in Unnao, she claimed that despite being called "powerful", no authorities heard them.

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 in 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..."