Representative image of a gavel.
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Lucknow: An MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district on Friday sentenced BJP legislator Ram Dulare Gond to 25 years imprisonment in a rape case of a minor nine years ago.
The court which had found Gond, a former MLA from Duddhi Assembly seat in the district, guilty of rape on Tuesday and had listed Friday to pronounce its ruling on the quantum of punishment.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs ten lakh on the MLA and said that the amount would be given to the victim.
''Justice has been delivered,'' the brother of the victim said after the court's verdict.
Earlier the lawyer for the MLA, while arguing on the quantum of punishment in the court, pleaded for leniency while deciding the punishment, stating that the lawmaker was the head of the family and had the responsibility of looking after it.
The prosecution, on the other hand, sought maximum punishment contending that any leniency to him would send a wrong message to the society as the accused was a public representative.
Gond was charged with raping a minor, and a case in this regard was lodged at Myorpur police station after the victim's brother lodged a complaint with the police.
Gond's wife was then the 'pradhan' (panchayat chief) of the village.
It was alleged Gond had got a fake school-leaving certificate of the victim showing her to be an adult to avoid being charged under the POCSO Act. Gond had also allegedly tried to pressurise victim's family to withdraw the case and compromise, in exchange for money.
Gond, who was taken into custody by the police after he was convicted in the case, was certain of losing the membership of the Assembly after the court's verdict on his punishment.