Former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati is here to stay in jail as Allahabad high court on Friday issued a stay order on the bail granted to him in connection with the gangrape case. Prajapti and two of his alleged accomplices were on Tuesday granted bail by the POCSO court in Lucknow. However, his reprieve was shortlived as a local court on Wednesday remanded him to judicial custody in two separate cases even before he could walk out of jail. After POCSO court’s bail order, the Uttar Pradesh government moved the Allahabad high court to seek cancellation of the bail.
Prajapati and his accomplices were arrested for allegedly gangraping a woman and attempting to molest her minor daughter.
On the Supreme Court’s directions, an FIR was lodged against Prajapati and six others for allegedly raping a woman at his official residence in Lucknow. The woman also alleged that Prajapati blackmailed her with photographs of the gangrape for months. Her minor daughter was also allegedly sexually assaulted in July 2016.
The apex court’s direction had come on a PIL filed by a woman who had alleged repeated gangrape by Gayatri Prajapati and others and sought the court’s direction for lodging of an FIR.
Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested Prajapati in Lucknow on March 15. Prajapati, who was a minister in Akhilesh Yadav government, was absconding since February 27.
