Prajapati's reprieve shortlived, sent to custody in new case

The reprieve given by a special court to former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati in a rape case proved to be shortlived as a court here on Wednesday remanded him in judicial custody in a separate case.

Prajapati and two of his alleged accomplices were on Tuesday granted bail by special judge of a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court Om Prakash Mishra here in connection with the rape case. However, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sandhya Srivastava on Wednesday sent the ex-minister to judicial custody in connection with the case lodged by social activist Nutan Thakur, wife of senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur.

Nutan had lodged the FIR on June 20, 2015 at Gomtinagar police station in which she alleged that Prajapati had used his undue political and administrative clout to conspire with the then chairperson of state women commission Zarina Usmani and others to frame her and her husband in "completely false" rape charges and other allegations.

Police initially did not take action claiming that it was a false case intending to malign the minister. But, subsequently, it was reopened on the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow in September 2015.

The CJM court on Wednesday remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days till May 10 for interrogation.

In a related development, Amethi Superintendent of Police Anis Ansari suspended Munshiganj SHO RK Singh for trying to influence the probe into the rape charges against Prajapati, who lost his Amethi Assembly seat to BJP in the recent elections. In more trouble for the former minister, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has ordered demolition of a building constructed by him on encroached LDA land.