UP: Ex-MLA gets life in prison for rape of college girl in 2008

BAREILLY: A special MP/MLA court in Budaun has sentenced former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Yogendra Sagar to life in prison for the alleged rape of a college student 13 years ago. He has also been fined Rs 30,000, which will be given to the survivor as compensation.
The woman, who was 20 when the crime was committed, was abducted and gang-raped in 2008, and Sagar was made a co-accused in the case. Though the police had filed a closure report in Sagar's favour, the case was reopened by a sessions court in 2010. It was then transferred to the MP/MLA court for speedy trial under supervision of the Supreme Court. The judgment on Saturday was pronounced by additional district judge Akhilesh Kumar after he found Sagar guilty under IPC sections 376 D (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation). Sagar’s son is a sitting BJP MLA from Bisauli constituency in Budaun.
"My daughter is now married. She finally got justice after so many years," the victim's father told TOI. Additional district government counsel A K Singh said, “The accused was an MLA from Bilsi constituency in 2008. Police had filed a closure report but the court found that the initial statement of the survivor was recorded while she was under the influence of the accused, who had been threatening her.
"The judge considered the revised statement of the girl, which she had submitted later in court, and convicted the MLA for rape and criminal intimidation," A K Singh added.
The woman's counsel Arvind Sharma said, “She was out to collect notes from her friend’s house when she was kidnapped by BSP workers Tejendra Sagar and Neeraj Sharma (both convicted in 2019) on April 23, 2008. She was found by police near the Muzaffarnagar city railway station after a month and was unwell but the police didn’t take her to the district hospital for medical examination and just recorded her statement." He said that only after she was handed over to the family did she tell them about her abduction, revealing that she was taken to Lucknow by the two accused with the support of MLA Sagar. There she was sedated and raped. She was then taken to a house in Delhi where she was raped again by the three men.
As the family started building pressure on police to find their daughter and there were several protests seeking justice for them, Tejendra and Neeraj eventually dropped the girl outside a railway station. Arvind Sharma added that the ex-MLA was influential at the time and "used his power to tamper with investigation".
He added: “The survivor couldn’t continue her education because of threats from the accused and trauma. She confined herself to her house for several years and lived a miserable life. I spoke to her after the judgement was pronounced and she was extremely happy. She said she lived a nightmare because of the ex-MLA and this judgement has given her hope. She is now happily married with two children."
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)