india

Updated: Dec 21, 2018 21:18 IST

A local court on Friday awarded life sentence to suspended Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav and fined him Rs 50,000 for raping a minor girl at his residence in Bihar Sharif in Feb 2016.

Special MP-MLA court judge-cum-additional district and sessions judge Parshuram Singh Yadav awarded him life imprisonment under sections 376 (rape) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Yadav, who is an MLA from Nawada, stands to lose his membership of the Bihar Assembly. Under section 8(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release.

Two others convicted in the case for criminal conspiracy and trafficking, Sulekha and her mother Radha Devi, were given life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of Rs 20,000 each. Three others — Sulekha’s daughter Chhoti Devi, her in-laws Sandip Suman and Tusi Devi, were sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000