Lucknow, Nov 10 (IANS) A special court in Lucknow on Wednesday pronounced former UP minister Gayatri Prajapati guilty in a gang rape case.
Two of his associates, Ashok Tiwari and Ashish Shukla, have also been convicted.
Judge Pawan Kumar Rai of a special MP/MLA court in Lucknow held Prajapati guilty of gang rape charges in the case under Sections 482/378/407 of the Indian Penal Code.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on Friday.
In this case, seven people, including Prajapati, were charged.
A woman from Chitrakoot had accused former Samajwadi Party minister and his friends of gang rape. The woman also alleged that the accused forcibly had physical intercourse with her minor daughter.
On the directions of the Supreme Court, an FIR was lodged against Prajapati and six other accused on February 18, 2017. All of them were charged with gang rape, threat to life, and violating the POCSO Act.
Apart from Prajapati, Vikas Verma, Amarendra Singh, Chandrapal, Rupeshwar, Shukla, and Tiwari were also charged in this case.
Prajapati and the other accused were arrested and imprisoned after the FIR was filed.
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Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) anti-Dalit, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), here on Tuesday, threatened a nationwide agitation if the land was not provided for rebuilding the Sant Ravidas temple.
India on Tuesday asserted that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is its territory and it expects to have "physical jurisdiction" over PoK one day even as it stated that revocation of Article 370 was a purely internal affair which it would not discuss with Pakistan.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 69 on Tuesday, motley of Bollywood stars like Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar and Anil Kapoor took to social media to wish their "inspiring" leader "who walks the talk".
