New Delhi: Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday met the Unnao rape survivor in Delhi. The meeting came a day after the survivor and her mother were dragged away from Delhi’s India Gate while protesting against the suspended sentence granted to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2019 rape case. The survivor met Gandhi at Sonia Gandhi’s residence at 10 Janpath.
Paramilitary personnel had reportedly stopped the survivor and her mother from addressing the media and allegedly forced the elderly mother to jump off a moving bus.
The survivor and her mother have been protesting against the Delhi High Court’s relief to Sengar, who has been convicted in the rape case.
Sengar has challenged his conviction and sentence, and will remain out of jail until the court reaches a decision on the matter.
Reacting to the survivor and her mother being dragged by police, Rahul Gandhi had said,"Is such treatment of a gang rape survivor appropriate? Is her "fault" that she has the courage to raise her voice for justice? The fact that her perpetrator (former BJP MLA) 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 had said on X earlier in the day.
"Bail for rapists, and treating survivors like criminals—what kind of justice is this? We are not just becoming a dead economy—with such inhuman incidents, we are also turning into a dead society. In a democracy, raising a voice of dissent is a right, and suppressing it is a crime. The survivor deserves respect, safety, and justice—not helplessness, fear, and injustice," he added.
