Ex-UP minister Gayatri Prajapati sentenced to life imprisonment, fined Rs 2 lakh in gangrape case

Former UP minister Gayatri Prajapati has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court in the Chitrakoot gangrape case. A fine of Rs 2 lakh has also been imposed on him.

Gayatri Prajapati was convicted by the Special Court of Lucknow and the court gave its verdict a few days ago. At the same time, 4 people were acquitted due to lack of evidence. His sentence was announced in court on Friday.

After hearing the arguments of both sides, the court sentenced former minister Gayatri Prajapati, Ashish Shukla and Ashok Tiwari to life imprisonment. At the same time, Gayatri Prajapati was fined Rs 2 lakh.

According to the prosecution, the victim woman from Chitrakoot had lodged a report on February 18, 2017, at the Gautam Palli police station in Lucknow. The woman alleges that in the name of getting the mining work done, Gayatri Prajapati and other convicts called the woman to Lucknow and committed rape. At the same time, an attempt was made to rape her minor daughter as well.

The woman alleged that she also made a written complaint to the DGP of UP about this, but no action was taken from there, after which, a special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court. Following the apex court’s order, on February 18, 2017, an FIR was registered against Gayatri Prajapati and the rest of the accused at the Gautam Palli police station in Lucknow.

At the time of registration of the case, Prajapati was the Transport Minister in the Akhilesh government in UP. Prior to this, he was the Mining Minister in the state government, in which the CBI raided his house and premises on the charge of scam worth crores.