On December 20, Special District Judge Dharmesh Sharma ruled that Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the expelled BJP MLA, will spend the "remainder of his biological life" in jail for raping a minor girl in Unnao in 2017. Shortly after, advocate Dharmendra Kumar Mishra conveyed the news to his client, the rape survivor, who was undergoing treatment at AIIMS, Delhi, for injuries sustained when a truck rammed into her vehicle on July 28 in Rae Bareli. "She told me 'aap jaise vakeel yadi honge toh desh ki betiyon ko zaroor nyay milega [The daughters of this nation will definitely get justice when there are lawyers like you]," recalls Mishra, while speaking with mid-day over the phone from the national capital on Sunday.

The 130-day trial began in August and was conducted on a day-to-day basis at Tis Hazari District Court in Delhi till December. "He [Sengar] will have to be in jail till his last breath ," said Mishra, who took up the case pro bono when it was shifted to Delhi after the death of her aunt and the aunt's sister in the July 28 accident. The woman's lawyer was also severely injured and is undergoing treatment in Delhi, and the survivor, now stable, is staying at a residence in Delhi provided to her on the orders of judge Sharma. "The CBI calls the death of the two women an 'accident' — but I say they were 'unnatural death' on road whose charge sheet has still not gone through the scrutiny of a court," said Mishra.