Independent MLA Julius Dorphang was charged with the rape of a 14-year-old in 2017. File
A former Meghalaya legislator has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for raping a minor girl in 2017 when he was an MLA.
Julius Dorphang was sentenced to the jail term by F S Sangma, special judge for Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases in Ri-Bhoi district.
The former legislator's counsel Kishore Ch Gautam said they would challenge the judgment in Meghalaya High Court.
Founder-chairman of insurgent group Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council, Julius Dorphang surrendered before police in 2007. He was elected to the Assembly as an Independent in 2013 from Mawhati seat in Ri-Bhoi district.
In 2017, he was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl. The legislator went into hiding after police registered a case against him. He was eventually arrested from near the inter-state bus terminus on the outskirts of Assam capital Guwahati.
The former legislator was charged under sections of the POCSO Act and the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.
He had been lodged at the Nongpoh district jail before a single-judge bench of Meghalaya High Court granted him bail on medical grounds in 2020.