Nanda, 30, who had spent nine months in jail earlier, was brought to the court of Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar at around 2.55 pm.
The convict, with a stubble of several days, stood close to his octogenarian grandmother Sumitra Nanda, along with other family members, who had arrived earlier and were waiting for the sentencing in the nine-year-old case.
When the judge called his name, Nanda, a management graduate from Wharton Business School in the UK, raised his hand.
The other three convicts, however, looked relaxed as they knew that they would be getting bail even after getting the maximum punishment under Section 201 of the IPC for destruction of evidence.
Minutes after the judge pronounced the sentence against Nanda, his family members including his arms dealer father Suresh Nanda looked shocked. It appeared that they were expecting a lighter punishment.
Coming out of the courtroom, Nanda's father said, "We are very shocked. We will have to take appropriate legal advice on this issue."
Nanda's elder sister Sonali, refusing to speak on the merits of the case, said, "He is my brother who is an introvert and had already undergone the trauma for being involved in this case."
Nanda's counsel Ramesh Gupta and Prem Kumar, however, expressed their dissatisfaction over the court's verdict, saying that there were various lacunae in it and would file an appeal before the High Court.