Gayatri Prajapati to face charges under Pocso

Former mining minister in the Samajwadi Party government Gayatri Prajapati will face charges under the Pocso ACT and gang rape.

Additional district Judge Uma Shankar Sharma on Tuesday rejected Prajapati’s discharge application in which he had challenged the state government’s decision to impose Pocso on him.

Prajapati is an accused in the 2014 gang rape case of a woman and her minor daughter.

A non-bailable warrant was issued against the former minister and six others in the case.

The woman had accused Prajapati of offering her tea laced with sedatives and raping her. Prajapati had contested the 2017 assembly election from Amethi seat but lost.

The former minister went missing after the election and an FIR was lodged against him on February 27.

The Supreme Court had also turned down Prajapati’s plea for stay on arrest on March 6.

A lookout notice was also issued for Prajapati by the UP Police after he went missing. He was arrested from Ashiyana area in Lucknow by the UP Special Task Force (STF) on March 15.

The minister, considered close to Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, is also facing charges of misappropriation of funds in the mining department.

PRAJAPATI IS AN ACCUSED IN THE 2014 GANG RAPE CASE OF A WOMAN AND HER MINOR DAUGHTER. A NONBAILABLE WARRANT WAS ISSUED AGAINST HIM IN THE CASE.