Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Ramdular Gond gets 25 years for 2014 rape of minor

A special court in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district has sentenced BJP MLA Ramdular Gond to 25 years in prison and imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in 2014, a crime for which punishment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act usually ranges between a seven-year jail term and imprisonment for life.

Gond, a first-time MLA who won the Duddhi seat in 2022, had been out on bail, having been taken into custody and sent to jail soon after his conviction by additional district judge (first) Ehsan Ullah Khan of the MP-MLA court.

Gond stands to automatically lose his assembly membership in accordance with the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling that any MP or MLA convicted of a crime and handed a minimum two-year jail term ceases to be an elected representative with immediate effect.

Advocate Vikas Shakya, the rape survivor's counsel, said the MLA was held guilty under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code besides the POCSO Act. The verdict came after the court heard eight prosecution and three defence witnesses.

The survivor's brother said he had been hoping the court would pronounce a jail term of not less than 20 years against Gond, whom he accused of harassing his family repeatedly after becoming an MLA and pressuring them to withdraw the case.

The MLA had waylaid the survivor and tried to sexually assault her in a village field on the evening of 4 November 2014, a member of the prosecution team said.

Gond's wife was village pradhan (head) at the time of the crime. The survivor came back home and narrated her ordeal to her elder brother, a farmer. She then said the politician had raped her multiple times in the preceding months by using threats and intimidation.

Myorpur police registered a case against Gond based on a complaint by the girl's brother. During trial, the prosecution claimed the girl was born in 1998, while the MLA produced documents claiming she was born in 1994, special public prosecutor Satyaprakash Tripathi said.

"By the time her statement was recorded during the trial, the girl was married. She lives with her family now," the prosecution said.

After Gond was elected MLA, the case was transferred from the POCSO court to the MP-MLA court.