Rape victim withdraws complaint after 'deal' with accused former UP minister

A former Uttar Pradesh minister, who was accused in a rape case and was recently granted interim bail by the court, allegedly got the victim to withdraw her complaint in exchange for land and other properties.

According to the police sources here, Gayatri Prajapati, who was a minister in the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in the state between 2012 and 2017, had allegedly raped a woman, a resident of Chitrakoot district.

Prajapati was arrested after the police lodged a case of rape against him on the direction of the Supreme Court in 2017. He had been in jail since then and was released on interim bail for two months on health grounds.

The case took a new twist recently when the rape victim made a u-turn and said that she had been coerced to lodge the complaint against the former minister by Prajapati's rival Ram Singh, who had 'kidnapped' her daughter and had also raped her.

She moved the court to withdraw her complaint and also fired her lawyer. Singh was later arrested by the police.

The lawyer, a few days back, lodged a complaint with the police alleging that Prajapati had 'transferred' land and other properties worth crores to the victim to get her to withdraw the charge.

The police have registered a case of forgery, cheating and issuing threats against former minister Gayatri Prajapati and the rape victim on a complaint by the lawyer of the victim.

Two cops, including an inspector, were suspended on Thursday after it turned out that they had arrested Singh without any evidence.