Indian ex-lawmaker gets life term for rape of teen

A court sentenced a former lawmaker from India’s ruling party to life imprisonment for raping a teenager, his lawyer said yesterday, the highest ranking Indian politician to get such a significant jail term in recent years. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP legislator in Uttar Pradesh, was convicted earlier this week under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Sengar, who was later expelled from the party, had pleaded not guilty. The court in Delhi also fined him 2.5 million rupees ($35,000). The case gained nationwide attention last year when the accuser, who was a teenager in 2017 when she says she was raped, tried to kill herself, accusing the police of inaction. In July, a truck crashed into a car she was travelling in. Two of her relatives were killed and she was injured.