Convicted for raping a 17-year-old college student in the Buddha Jayanti Park in 2003, two sacked members of the elite Presidential Bodyguard group were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment on Saturday by a city court, which noted that the maximum punishment under the law was required in the case for “exemplary and deterrent” effect.

The court sent Harpreet Singh and Satyender Singh behind bars for life while their other two accomplices Kuldip Singh and Munish Kumar, who were held guilty under the charge of robbery and kidnapping, were sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Dismissing the convicts’ plea for leniency, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) S K Sarvaria said, “The fact that they were working in the Presidential Body Guard department of the President of India but still committed such heinous offences calls for exemplary and deterrent punishment.”

Citing a number of Supreme Court and High Courts judgments that advocated stern punishment for rape, the court observed that that it was imperative in the given time and circumstances that the convicts were shown no clemency in the matter of punishment.

“In view of the above authorities emerging from the superior courts, it is clear that the sentence in rape cases should be deterrent and there should not be any misplaced sympathy with the convicts on the question of sentence,” said ASJ Sarvaria.

Harpreet and Satyender were also sentenced to life under the charge of robbery and asked to pay a monetary penalty of Rs 9,000 each.

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