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The mother of the 17-year-old survivor in the alleged sexual assault case against Bandi Bageerath, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, has appealed to the public not to disclose her daughter’s identity or any private material related to the case.
She also sought protection for her family from targeting and intimidation, and called for an independent inquiry.
On May 8, 2026, based on the mother’s complaint, an FIR was filed against Bageerath. He was initially charged with sexual harassment under the POCSO Act, with charges of aggravated sexual assault added subsequently.
In a press statement issued on May 14, the mother said that the circulation of material revealing her daughter’s identity has been “one of the deepest wounds inflicted upon our family.”
“No child victim should ever suffer such secondary trauma. No child should have to fear society, whispers, public judgment, or humiliation after already enduring emotional suffering,” she said and added that protecting a minor’s identity was not just a legal obligation under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act but also a “moral responsibility of society.”
“Every such act deepens the trauma of a child who is already emotionally shattered. No parent should have to watch society destroy the dignity and future of their child,” she said.
Bageerath has been absconding since the case was registered.
A petition for interim protection from arrest was filed on his behalf in the Telangana High Court, which is expected to pass an order on the matter on May 15.
S Niranjan Reddy, Bageerath’s lawyer and YSRCP MP in Rajya Sabha, said in court on May 14 that his client would appear before the police if granted interim protection. Reportedly the advocate also highlighted that the ‘conduct’ of the survivor is a relevant factor in the case.
Since the sexual assault allegations came to light, supporters of the BJP and Bageerath have circulated visuals showing the girl and her family interacting with him. Critics refer to this move as an attempt to malign them. The face and identity of the minor survivor and her parents have also been shared online, despite this being a crime under the POCSO Act.
In the press statement, the girl’s mother said that her family today lives under “constant fear, emotional exhaustion, and uncertainty.” She has sought protection from “intimidation, coercion, social targeting, and external pressure”, and an independent inquiry in the case.
“I request the judiciary, investigating agencies, child rights institutions, women's commissions, and all competent authorities to ensure that the investigation proceeds independently,” she said.
The mother also addressed questions being raised over the girl’s status as a minor at the time of the alleged offences.
On May 14, advocate Niranjan Reddy argued that there was reason to doubt whether the survivor was a minor, citing a chargesheet in an underage driving case against the girl from 2021 in which her age was reportedly mentioned as 15.
According to reports, the girl has two birth certificates carrying different years of birth – 2008 and 2010 – though in either case she would still have been a minor at the time of the alleged offences.
The mother said the family was “deeply hurt by repeated attempts to divert attention toward technical disputes relating to age documents and administrative inconsistencies.”
She stressed that the discrepancies in documents cannot erase her daughter’s suffering, and that all the documents taken together still clearly indicate that the girl was a minor at the time of the offences.
While their family faces “fear, emotional trauma, social targeting, and uncertainty,” Bageerath is still free, she said and added, “As parents, this reality breaks us every single day.”
She noted the fact that the police added charges of aggravated sexual assault after talking to the survivor. She said this demonstrated that the case cannot be dismissed as a "private issue" or "consensual fallout", as some supporters of Bandi Sanjay and Bageerath had tried to portray the case.
The press statement also reiterated the contents of the police complaint, which had stated that Bageerath met the girl through mutual friends in June 2025 and allegedly sexually abused or assaulted her on at least four occasions between October and December 2025.
“Our daughter alleges that she was emotionally manipulated, psychologically controlled, discouraged from focusing on her studies and future, and repeatedly pressured for physical involvement despite her discomfort and resistance on several occasions,” her mother said.
She said that after the relationship between Bageerath and the girl ended abruptly in January, her daughter “became withdrawn, emotionally disturbed, mentally exhausted, and deeply broken.”
When the family started to explore legal remedies, she said they faced intimidation.
The mother explained that a man named Sangappa, who is said to be a former journalist turned BJP leader, approached the family and arranged a meeting with Bandi Sanjay himself. She alleged that during the meeting, they were intimidated through political influence and potential consequences for anyone among his followers who moved against the Minister.
She also said that when the family went to Pet Baseerabad police station on May 8 to register the complaint, they were made to wait for more than five hours. “During those hours, my daughter sat there emotionally shattered while we repeatedly pleaded before authorities to hear us,” she said, adding that the police claimed the case fell out of their jurisdiction. Only after repeatedly insisting on a zero FIR, their complaint was acknowledged, she said.
“For a parent, those hours felt like our child's pain itself was being weighed and questioned,” the mother said.
While the FIR against Bageerath was registered at 10 pm, on the same day around 5 pm, a counter FIR was registered against the girl and her family at the Karimnagar II Town police station. Bageerath had complained that the family attempted to extort him by threatening to file false harassment cases and pressuring him to marry the girl. The girl is the main accused in the case.