Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), March 19 : The court of the additional district judge (ADJ), Muzaffarnagar, on Monday, sentenced two former Pradeshik Armed Constabulary (PAC) constables to life imprisonment for raping and robbing a female protester from Uttarakhand in the 30-year-old Rampur Tiraha incident here.

"The court convicted the two constables, Milap Singh and Virendra Pratap, and pronounced punishment," said additional district government counsel of Muzaffarnagar, Pravendra Kumar.

He added that both retired constables were sent to jail to serve life imprisonment and were also fined Rs 50,000 each.

The convicted PAC constables were posted in 41st battalion of PAC which was camped in Ghaziabad during the time of incident.

At least seven Uttarakhand activists were killed, and many women activists were allegedly molested during police firing at Rampur Tiraha in Muzaffarnagar on October 1, 1994.

The activists were on their way to Delhi from Rishikesh to raise their demand for a separate state of Uttarakhand that was later carved out of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000.

As per the district counsel, the court of ADJ Shakti Singh convicted now retired PAC constables Milap Singh and Virendra Pratap under Sections 354, 376 (2) (G), 392 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) presented 15 eyewitnesses in the court, including the then Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary Deepti Vilas, who were examined during the hearing.

CBI's Deputy Superintendent of Police, S.R. Agarwal, had lodged a case in Rampur Tiraha incident on January 25, 1995, and miscellaneous writs filed by Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti in the case were also included in it for investigation.

/IANS