Former SP minister Gayatri Prajapati attacked by fellow inmate in jail, police say no conspiracy angle

In a statement, Director General (Prisons) PC Meena said that an FIR has been registered against the accused inmate. “This was an accident. No conspiracy has been identified. A departmental investigation is underway,” Meena added.

Officials said Prajapati was attacked on Tuesday night at the jail hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, after a heated argument broke out between Prajapati and a fellow prisoner.

Sources said Prajapati had sought water from an undertrial, who was on cleaning duty at the jail hospital at that time. When the undertrial refused, Prajapati allegedly used abusive language, and the prisoner hit him on his head. Prajapati was taken to the trauma centre of King George Medical University (KGMU) for further treatment.

“On Tuesday evening, a dispute broke out between two inmates – Vishwas and former MLA Gayatri Prajapati – in the Lucknow District Jail. During the altercation, Vishwas, enraged by the former MLA’s abusive language, struck him with an iron rail beneath a cupboard. The medical officer and the jail administration provided immediate medical treatment. Following this, Prajapati was referred to the KGMU for consultation, where X-rays and CT scans were normal. Currently, his health is completely normal, and the prison situation is also normal,” the DG (Prisons) said.

Earlier in the day, Gayatri Prajapati’s daughter, Ankita, arrived at the hospital with her mother and sister from Amethi.

Speaking to the mediapersons, Ankita alleged, “My father is not well… Despite being innocent, he has been in jail for the past 8.5 years… Now, he has been attacked with the intention to kill. We would request the Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) to meet us and listen to us. Our father is not a terrorist.”

Prajapati, meanwhile, told mediapersons at the hospital that while he does not have any dispute with anyone, the person who attacked him was a vicious criminal. “I am happy that my life was saved,” he added.

The Samajwadi Party has demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “There should be a judicial inquiry into the attack on former MLA and former minister, Gayatri Prajapati, inside the jail. No one, nowhere is safe in Uttar Pradesh.”

The SP MP from Ayodhya, Awadhesh Prasad, demanded Prajapati’s release on security grounds, claiming he received five stitches on his head following the attack.

Officials should probe how a sharp weapon entered the jail premises, he said.

Prajapati, who was the mining minister from 2013 to 2016 and later held the transport portfolio in the SP government, was arrested on March 15, 2017, in connection with a rape and molestation case. The woman had alleged that she knew Prajapati when he held the mining portfolio and used to visit his official residence in Lucknow for the allotment of a mining lease in her name in Hamirpur district. It was during these visits that she was raped, the woman had alleged. She had also alleged that on one occasion, Prajapati tried to outrage the modesty of her minor daughter.

The FIR against him was registered on the Supreme Court’s directions.

He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021.

SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had visited him in jail and later alleged that he was being treated like a “terrorist”.

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