Lucknow police on Wednesday arrested rape accused former Samajwadi Party minister Gayatri Prajapati.
The SP leader had been evading arrest ever since the Supreme Court directed that an FIR be registered against him in connection with the allegations of rape against him. The police had earlier arrested two sons of the absconding former minister for providing shelter to the accused.
Even after the SC order of arrest against him, Prajapati had been roaming freely and the SP had fielded him from Amethi assembly constituency in the recently concluded assembly polls. He had lost the election.
Until Prajapati was nabbed, the opposition had been accusing the police and the ruling SP government of shielding the accused.
Interestingly, victims had earlier made complaints of land grabbing against Prajapati, but no action was initiated against him as he was a minister in the ruling SP government and was quite close to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
There were also allegations of Prajapati amassing huge wealth when he was the mining minister as illegal mining thrived with his backing and he got a cut from those who were involved in it. With growing number of allegations against him, an exasperated former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had once suspended him from the cabinet. Akhilesh, however, was forced to revoke the suspension and reinstate him in the wake of mounting pressure from Mulayam.
Prajapati and his family were a BPL card holders in 2002. He managed to earn a good amount from property dealings after he started working as a real estate agent. He later started hobnobbing with SP leaders and succeeded in getting a party ticket in 2012.
He became close to Mulayam after he won the polls from Congress' turf Amethi in 2012.
