Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 9 (IANS): Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Satya Narayan Santu and six of his aides have been sentenced to seven years in jail in connection with a 16-year-old rape case.

The sentence was pronounced by a local MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi. Satya Narayan was a BSP MLA from 2002 to 2007.

On March 11, 2006, a woman had lodged a first information report (FIR) at Autrauli police station of Hardoi, charging Narayan and his aides with rape.

Additional district and sessions judge, Hardoi, Satya Deo Gupta pronounced the sentence against the former MLA and other accused and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each.

Narrating the sequence of events, a senior police officer said that on March 11, 2006, the former MLA and his henchmen gang-raped the woman after holding her husband and son hostage.

The survivor had lodged an FIR against the MLA and his aides Munwa, Chhotu Singh, Devendra Singh, Jitendra Singh, Satyendra Singh, Savendra Singh, Raju Singh, Prem Pal, and Yaseen Yadav.

Yaseen died during the trial while the matter of Satyendra and Savendra is pending in the juvenile court.