A Sikh militant convicted for the murder of Congress Member of Parliament Lalit Maken and his wife Geetanjali was on Monday given a life sentence by a Delhi court.

Additional Sessions Judge R K Jain also sentenced Ranjit Singh Gill to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment after he was found guilty under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court also imposed on Gill a fine of Rs 5,000 each for the offence under section 302 and 307 of the IPC.

However, the court said the life sentence and the 10-year rigorous imprisonment would run concurrently.

The court on Saturday had convicted Gill for the murder of the Makens, finding him guilty under section 302 and section 307.

Heavily armed militants had barged into the residence of the Makens in Kirti Nagar on July 31, 1985 and gunned down Geetanjali, daughter of former president Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, her husband and one Bal Kishan. Another person Suresh Malik was also injured in the firing.

Gill is one of the five people chargesheeted in the case. Out of the other four accused, Harjinder Singh Zinda and Sukhdev Singh alias Sukkha were executed in 1992 for the assassination of General A S Vaidya, while Sukhwinder Singh was killed in an encounter with the security forces. Accused Daljit Singh was acquitted in the case in 1999 for want of evidence.

According to the chargesheet, Gill and other terrorists belonging to Bhindaranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan were motivated by a book -- Who Are the Guilty -- that allegedly talked of Maken's involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that broke out in Delhi following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Gill, who had fled to the United States, after committing the crime, was brought to India by a joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Delhi police in May 2000.