UP: Former minister Gayatri Prajapati gets life imprisonment

A special court in Lucknow on Friday sentenced former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and two others to life in prison in connection with the Chitrakoot rape case. The two others sentenced along with Prajapati are Ashish Shukla and Ashok Tiwari. While Shukla is a former revenue clerk in Amethi, Tiwari worked as a contractor. Special Judge PK Rai held Prajapati and two others guilty of gang-raping the woman and also trying to rape her minor daughter, saying the prosecution has been able to prove charges against the trio beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge, however, acquitted four other accused in the case. A key member of Akhilesh Yadav's Cabinet, holding portfolios of the transport and mining ministries, Prajapati was arrested in March 2017 on charges of raping the woman and trying to rape her minor daughter as well.

The FIR against the minister was registered at the Gautampalli police station on the directions of the Supreme Court, which gave its order on the woman’s plea against the police inaction over her complaint. After the registration of the FIR on February 18, 2017, the minister was arrested in March and had been in jail ever since then.The woman had claimed that the minister and his accomplices have been raping her since October 2014. She decided to complain against them after the accused tried to molest and rape her minor daughter in July 2016.