Rahul Gandhi meets Unnao survivor after bail order, slams ‘dead society’

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met the survivor of the 2017 Unnao rape case in Delhi, sharply criticising what he described as her ill-treatment by authorities and the wider justice system after the Delhi High Court suspended the sentence of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.

Gandhi met the survivor at 10, Janpath — the residence of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi — hours after the woman staged a protest in the national capital against the high court’s decision granting Sengar bail pending appeal. The meeting came amid growing outrage over the survivor’s claims of harassment and intimidation following the court order, including her apparent forceful removal from the protest site.

During the meeting, the survivor and her family placed three urgent requests before the Leader of Opposition. They asked for help in securing a top lawyer to challenge the bail order before the Supreme Court, citing fears of intimidation and lack of faith in local protection. Rahul Gandhi assured them that the Congress would arrange the best possible legal representation for the case.

The family also requested assistance in relocating to a Congress-ruled state, saying they feared they could be murdered and no longer trusted the security arrangements available to them. Gandhi said he would facilitate the relocation.

Additionally, the survivor’s husband sought help in finding a better job to support the family, a request Gandhi acknowledged positively. Both Rahul and Sonia Gandhi assured the family that they would do everything within their capacity to ensure the family's safety, dignity and access to justice.

In a post on X in Hindi, Gandhi questioned the treatment meted out to the survivor, asking whether it was acceptable for a gang rape survivor to be subjected to fear and humiliation for speaking out. “Is such treatment of a gang rape survivor appropriate? Is it her ‘fault’ that she has the courage to raise her voice for justice?” he asked.

Calling the bail order “extremely disappointing and shameful”, Gandhi said the survivor continued to live under a shadow of fear despite years of legal struggle. “Bail for rapists and treating survivors like criminals — what kind of justice is this?” he said, adding that India was becoming “not just a dead economy but, with such inhuman incidents, also a dead society”.

He stressed that dissent and protest were democratic rights. “In a democracy, raising one’s voice is a right. Suppressing that voice is a crime,” Gandhi said. “The survivor deserves respect, safety and justice — not helplessness, fear and injustice.”

Earlier in the day, the survivor described the high court’s order as “kaal” — death — for her family, saying it had pushed her into despair. Speaking to PTI Videos, she said it was the thought of her children that stopped her from taking her own life after hearing the verdict.

“It was very painful. If I was not married and I did not have children, I would have died by suicide in front of the judge,” she said. “The judge did not see the victim and gave the judgment.”

The survivor went further, saying she would rather be jailed herself than live in fear if Sengar were released. “If the convict is being released from jail, then we should be sent to jail. If the convict comes out, I will complete the tenure on his behalf,” she said. “We will at least be safe in that case. We will be unemployed, but at least we will get food.”

She also said she wanted to meet President Droupadi Murmu to convey the pain and trauma she was experiencing because of the ruling.

Her mother, who accompanied her to the protest near Delhi's Mandi House, said, “We have faith in the Supreme Court and we hope it will give us justice.”

Other family members spoke of continuing fear. The survivor’s sister said their uncle was still receiving threats and recalled the family’s earlier loss, referring to the custodial death of the survivor’s father. “We lost our father, and even now this is how we are being treated,” she said.

On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court ordered that Sengar, who is serving a life sentence in the rape case, be released on bail while his appeal against his December 2019 conviction is heard. The court imposed strict conditions, directing that Sengar must not enter within a five-kilometre radius of the survivor’s home or threaten her or her mother. Any violation, it said, would automatically result in cancellation of bail.

However, Sengar will not walk free immediately. He remains in jail as he is also serving a separate 10-year sentence in a case related to the custodial death of the survivor’s father, in which he has not been granted bail.

With PTI inputs