NEW DELHI — An Indian court sentenced a lawmaker from the governing party on Friday to life in prison after finding him guilty of abducting and raping a minor girl in 2017.
New Delhi Judge Dharmesh Sharma also ordered Kuldeep Sengar to pay a fine of 2.5 million rupees ($35,715) to the victim.
He was arrested in April last year and expelled from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a lawmaker from northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The teen victim also accused the BJP of shielding the lawmaker and police of delaying his prosecution.
The girl said Sengar was known to her family because they were from the same village in Uttar Pradesh state. She accused Sengar of raping her in June 2017 when she went to his home in Unnao district, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Lucknow, the state capital.
