LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh (UP) minister Gayatri Prajapati was granted bail under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offence) Act by the special court of the chief judicial magistrate here on Tuesday.
Prajapati and six accomplices face charges of gangraping a woman corporator (35) from Chitrakoot, and sexually harassing her daughter in 2014. Two accomplices--Vivek Verma and Pintu Singh -- were also granted bail by the same court.
The accused ex-minister was granted bail on two surety bonds of Rs 1 lakh each and a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh submitted in court.
The case against Prajapati was registered under section 376-D (rape by two or more persons), 376 (rape), 511 (committing offences punishable with life imprisonment), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3/4 of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offence) Act with the Gautum Palli police station in Lucknow on February 18 in compliance with the Supreme Court directives.
Prajapati eluded the police for almost a month after being booked but was arrested in Lucknow on March 15. During its efforts to nab Prajapati, the UP police administration had issued a lookout notice against him besides cancelling his passport and issuing a non-bailable warrant.
The Supreme Court had intervened while taking cognisance of the petition of the victim, who had approached it after being turned away by the State police despite her repeated complaints at every level against Gayatri Prajapati .
While hearing the case, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered UP police to provide security to the victim as she expressed a potential threat to her daughters’ and her life from the accused.
Gayatri Prajapati's security guard, Chandrapal, was the first named person to be arrested in Lucknow on March 6. It was followed by a series of arrests nabbing all other accused named in the case.
However, Prajapati was held only after the police tightened the noose around his two sons and detained them a day before his arrest.
The case dominated the political discourse of the recently-concluded UP Assembly polls as the ex-minister’s action was exposed mid-elections. Prajapati was the SP candidate from Amethi against the two Ranis – BJP’s Garima Singh and Congress’s Amita Singh.
The tainted leader, who had won from Amethi in the 2012 Assembly election lost to Garima Singh in 2017.