ED searches 13 locations linked to former U.P. minister Gayatri Prajapati

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches at 13 locations of jailed former U.P. minister Gayatri Prajapati, his family members and associates in Lucknow, Amethi, Delhi and Mumbai in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, case registered against the ex-minister in 2021, said senior ED officials here. The officials said the ex-minister’s son Anurag Prajapati was taken along to Lucknow from Amethi for recording his statement in the case.

As per them, the raids were carried at six locations in Lucknow, including the under-construction house of his family at Sarojini Naidu Marg in Hazratganj, his son-in-law’s flat in Omaxe Heights, his close aide Gudda Devi’s houses in Ashiana and Alambagh and another aide’s house in Amrapali Yojana on IIM road, Dubagga. The raids were also carried out at two locations in Amethi, four locations in Mumbai and one in Delhi, they added.

Earlier, the ED provisionally attached various immovable properties of the former minister, his family members and close associates worth ₹ 50.37 crore. It further said the ED investigation revealed that Prajapati, as the mining minister of Uttar Pradesh during Samajwadi Party regime between 2012-2017, misused his official position and acquired huge assets in the name of his family members and other close associates as well as friends which were disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Prajapati and his family laundered the illicit funds generated during his tenure as a minister through various legal entities via a set of fictitious and sham transactions to acquire multiple assets. The investigation also revealed that he also used the bank accounts of his family members to deposit the illegal cash and misused his fiduciary relation with them for his illegal gains. The officials said further probe into the case was under progress.

The ED registered the PMLA case against the former minister on January 15, 2021 based on findings that surfaced during searches conducted at seven locations linked to him, his family members and aides in Lucknow, Kanpur and Amethi on December 30, 2020.

Gayatri Prajapati has been in jail since March 2017 after a woman lodged an FIR of gangrape and sexual harassment against him and his associates at Gautampalli police station of Lucknow in in 2016.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing a multi-crore illegal mining case against the former minister, had issued summons to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as a witness when the illegal mining took place as he was the chief minister of the state during that period. The CBI had asked to join the investigation as a witness before the probe agency on February 29 this year.