Allahabad HC puts stay on bail granted to former UP minister Gayatri Prajapati

Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, on Friday, put a stay on the bail given to former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati in a rape case by local court, reported ANI.

Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC stays bail given to former UP Minister Gayatri Prajapati in a rape case by local court (file pic) pic.twitter.com/dmbqhOLeGY

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The Uttar Pradesh government had sought to move the Allahabad High Court to seek cancellation of bail granted to Prajapati, on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_3411818” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Gayatri Prajapati. CNN News 18[/caption] Prajapati and two of his alleged accomplices were granted bail on Tuesday by special judge of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court Om Prakash Mishra in Lucknow in connection with the rape case that had rocked the state some months back during the Samajwadi Party rule.  The BJP had accused Akhilesh of shielding his tainted minister, a charge refuted by the Samajwadi Party. According to reports, a woman from Chitrakoot had approached Gautampalli police station on 17 February alleging that she was gang-raped by Prajapati and two more men forcibly for several months before she alerted the police. She had also alleged that the three had also sexually assaulted her minor daughter at Prajapati’s residence. After being on the run for nearly a month, Prajapati was arrested from the Aashiyana area in Lucknow on 15 March and was sent to jail for allegedly raping the woman and attempting to rape her minor daughter in 2014. The six others had been arrested earlier. Prajapati had approached the Supreme Court to get a stay on his arrest. But the apex court asked him to approach the court concerned. At the time of his arrest, Prajapati had claimed that he was innocent and the charges were a conspiracy to malign him. Two old cases come back to haunt Prajapati Though Prajapati got a bail in the rape case, his reprieve proved to be shortlived as a local court on Wednesday remanded him in judicial custody in two separate cases even before he could walk out of jail. Prajapati was sent back to Gosainganj prison in Lucknow on Friday after the city police dug out old cases and convinced the bench to send Prajapati back to judicial custody. They produced case diaries of two FIRs registered at Gautampalli and Gomtinagar police stations in Lucknow against Prajapati in order to convince the court that letting him out on bail can jeopardise the ongoing investigations in the two criminal cases. Case 1: Chief Judicial Magistrate Sandhya Srivastava sent the ex-minister to judicial custody in connection with a case lodged by social activist Nutan Thakur, wife of senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur. Nutan had lodged the FIR on 20 June 2015 at Gomtinagar police station in which she alleged that Prajapati had used his undue political and administrative clout to conspire with the then chairperson of state women commission Zarina Usmani and others to frame her and her husband in “completely false” rape charges and other allegations. Police initially did not take action claiming that it was a false case intending to malign the minister. But subsequently, it was reopened on the orders of the chief judicial magistrate, Lucknow in September 2015. The CJM court has now remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days till 10 May for interrogation. Case 2: In one of the other two old cases, Meerut resident Rakesh Prajapati had lodged FIR against Prajapati on 21 March 2017 alleging that he had given Rs 6 Lakh to him for procuring government service for his brother-in-law. But, when he did not get a job, he asked Prajapati to return his money. At this, Prajapati abused him and also threatened him to implicate him in a false case. The case is registered for the offences of cheating and threat to life and an investigation is going on. On an application moved before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Ritish Sachdeva by Gautampalli police, the court accepted the request sending him to judicial custody in the case till 9 May for the purpose of interrogation. Prajapati will now have to obtain bail in these two cases also for securing his release from jail. With inputs from PTI