A SPECIAL court on Friday sentenced former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati and two others to life imprisonment in a 2017 rape case. Additional District and Session Judge Pawan Kumar Rai also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of the three convicts, according to Lucknow district government counsel Manoj Kumar Tripathi. Defence counsel Sunil Singh said they would file an appeal against the judgment in the High Court. He said they are yet to get a copy of the judgment. The case against Prajapati, a minister in the previous Samajwadi Party government, and six others was lodged in February 2017 on the directions of Supreme Court after a woman alleged that they raped her and tried to molest her minor daughter. On Wednesday, the court convicted Prajapati, Ashish Shukla and Ashok Tiwari and acquitted four other accused due to lack of evidence. Shukla is a former revenue clerk in Amethi. Tiwari was a contractor. The case against Prajapati and six others was lodged under IPC provisions relating to rape, attempt to rape, criminal intimidation, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace among others. Police also invoked charges under POCSO. The victim had alleged that she knew Prajapati, who then held the mining portfolio, and used to visit his two official residences in Lucknow for allotment of a mining lease in her name in Hamirpur district. It was during these visits that she was raped, the woman had said. She also alleged that on one occasion, Prajapati tried to outrage the modesty of her minor daughter. Prajapati, who was the mining minister from 2013 to 2016 and later held the transport portfolio, was arrested on March 15, 2017, and has since been in jail.
