Cops raid UP minister’s residence

Lucknow, Feb. 28: Acting on the Supreme Court orders, the Uttar Pradesh police on TUesday searched the official residence of Cabinet minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, facing probe for his alleged role in a rape case.

“A police team had gone to his official residence here. It’s part of the investigation. The minister was not found there. We have sent teams to Amethi also,” a senior officer said.

Amethi is his Assembly constituency where he was seen moving freely asking people to vote for him.

He had also attended a public meeting with the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav campaigning for candidates, but he had left the stage just as the CM arrived to address the gathering.

Gayatri, 49, is facing imminent arrest following an FIR lodged against him and six of his accomplices on the apex court order at Gautampalli police station in the capital on February 18 under various sections of the IPC and Pocso Act.

The UP police had lodged an FIR against Prajapati on the apex court’s order for his alleged roles in separate

cases of gangrape and an attempt to rape another woman and her minor daughter.

The SC’s direction came on a petition by a woman who alleged repeated gangrape by Prajapati and others and sought the court’s order for lodging the FIR.

The alleged offence was first committed in October 2014 and was repeated till July 2016, but when the accused tried to molest the minor daughter of the victim, she wrote to the state DGP in October 2016, requesting action. When her complaint went unheeded, she moved the Supreme Court for justice.

Prajapati was sacked by the CM in 2016 at the height of the Yadav family feud but was later reinstated and inducted into the council of ministers. — PTI