Ex-UP minister Gayatri Prajapati attacked in jail hospital, Akhilesh demands judicial probe

Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh minister and senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Gayatri Prajapati, who was an accused in a gang rape case and was currently lodged in the Lucknow district jail, was allegedly attacked by another inmate in the jail hospital.

Prajapati, who was undergoing treatment in the jail hospital following some medical complications, suffered injuries on his head, according to the police sources here.

Sources said that the ex-minister, whose wife Mahraji Devi was an MLA from Amethi assembly constituency, had a heated exchange with an inmate, identified as Vishwas, after which the latter attacked him with a knife on Tuesday evening. Police however said that he was attacked with a rod.

Prajapati’s family termed the attack a ’conspiracy’  to ‘kill’ him and demanded adequate security for him. His daughter said that the former minister required 20 stitches. ‘’If he (Prajapati) is not safe inside jail, then where else will he be safe,’’ said his daughter.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav decried the attack on Prajapati and demanded a judicial probe into the matter. ‘’No one is safe in UP,’’ he said in a post on his ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) handle.

‘’Prajapati was immediately attended to and he is recovering,’’ said a jail official here on Wednesday.

Though Gayatri Prajapti’s wife was an SP MLA, she preferred not to cast her vote in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls in the state last year in which an additional candidate of the BJP had sailed through with the support of some SP rebels.