Bihar MLA gets life term for rape

TT, 22 Dec 2018, Patna: Suspended Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav was on Friday sentenced to life in jail for raping a 15-year-old girl on February 6, 2016. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on Raj Ballabh, who represented the Nawada constituency.

Two others, Radha Devi and Sulekha Devi, were given life sentences and slapped with fines of Rs 20,000 each while three others, Choti, Tussi and Sandip Suman, were awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000 each for helping Raj Ballabh commit the crime.

Special MP & MLA court judge P.S. Yadav convicted the lawmaker, who the RJD had suspended shortly after he was accused, under sections of the IPC including 376 (rape) and those of the Protection of Raj Ballabh Yadav leaves the court on Friday. (PTI) Children From Sexual Offences Act (Pocso). The other accused too were held guilty under sections of the IPC and Pocso. The court had on December 15 held all six guilty.

The girl had said she was taken to a house by Sulekha, forced to drink alcohol and raped by a man. She later identified the MLA, and his residence in Biharsharif, the Nalanda district headquarters town around 70 km south-east of Patna. Sulekha gave her Rs 30,000 after the rape. The girl's father had run from one police station to another to get the FIR registered. The case was lodged at the Biharsharif Women's police station on February 9, 2016, after a senior police officer intervened. Raj Ballabh had surrendered in court in March and was granted bail by Patna High Court in September 2016.

In October that year, the girl had said she could not depose before the trial court to record her statement as she apprehended threat to her life from the lawmaker. She also sent messages to newspaper houses alleging that cops were hand-in-glove with the MLA.

Raj Ballabh had surrendered in court in November 2016 after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail.

The girl's father had said: "I would like to make her a police officer so that she can help people like her who are punished for no fault of theirs.".