Former UP minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, two others convicted in gangrape case
The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on November 12 in the gangrape case against Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and others
Special judge (MP/MLA court-Lucknow) Pawan Kumar Rai on Wednesday convicted former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and two others, Ashish Shukla and Ashok Tewari, in a gang-rape case. The court will the pronounce the quantum of punishment on November 12.
The court absolved four others — Vikas Varma, Amrendra Singh “Pintu”, Chandrapal and Rupeshwar “Rupesh” — of all charges.
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati,who was a minister in the previous Samajwadi Party government, Shukla and Tewari were convicted on charges of gang rape and under sections of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.
On February 18, 2017, a woman from Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh had lodged an FIR against Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and his six associates for allegedly gang-raping her and attempting to rape her 17-year-old daughter at his official residence in Gautampalli, Lucknow, when he was the mining minister in the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh between 2015 and 2016.
It was on the Supreme Court’s order that the Lucknow police had booked the former minister for rape and other serious charges, including sections of Pocso Act. Gayatri Prasad Prajapati had been in jail since March 15, 2017.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice AK Sikri on February 17, 2017, had ordered the Uttar Pradesh police to conduct an inquiry and submit an action taken report to the court in a sealed cover within eight weeks.
The Supreme Court order had come on a petition filed by the victim (Chitrakoot-based woman).
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati was sacked by the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav from his cabinet in 2016 during the family feud in the Samajwadi Party. He was later reinstated.
The victim’s lawyer had alleged in Supreme Court that the woman was repeatedly raped between October 2014 and July 2016.
The woman lodged a complaint only when the minister tried to outrage the modesty of her minor daughter, the victim’s lawyer said.
The victim had complained that she was also raped when she met the former minister in 2013 for a mining contract. She also alleged that Gayatri Prasad Prajapati took her obscene photos and raped her multiple times for three years by threatening to make the pictures public.
When BJP formed the government in the state, it constituted an SIT in May 2017 to probe the charges against the former minister. Deepak Kumar, the then SSP of Lucknow, had constituted the SIT to ensure transparency in the probe.
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who was the mining minister in the then Samajwadi Party government, is also facing a probe for irregularities in his ministry.
