A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district on Friday sentenced a BJP MLA to 25 years of imprisonment for raping a minor girl, intimidating her and forging documents to prove that she was above 18 years of age.

The MP-MLA court of additional district and sessions judge, Ahsanullah Khan, observed in the order that the charges against Ramdular Gaur, sitting BJP MLA from Duddhi Assembly constituency, were proved beyond doubt and the lawmaker was guilty in the nine-year-old case.

The court had ordered his arrest on Tuesday and fixed the date for pronouncement of the punishment on Friday.

Vikas Shakya, the counsel for the victim girl, told reporters: “Gaur was just a politician in 2014 and his wife was village panchayat chief in 2014 when he had been repeatedly raping a minor girl. Then he tried to force her for abortion. However, her family members secretly married her off and sent her to her husband’s house. Gaur chased her, went to her husband’s house many times and tried to intimidate her.”

“The girl had refused to go for abortion and also decided to fight it out. Her parents and in-laws decided to file a case against Gaur and pursue it in the court. Gaur became an MLA in 2022 but the victim’s family didn’t fear him and his henchmen who used to threaten them with dire consequences almost every day,” Shakya added.

The victim is a mother now.