Key witness in gangrape case against ex-SP minister alleges kidnap attempt by his son

The 20-year-old key witness in the gang rape and attempt to rape case against former Samajwadi Party minister Gayatri Prajapati has accused his son Anil Prajapati of attempt to kidnap her with an intention to murder because she had refused to turn hostile in the case against his father.

The key witness--who is the elder daughter of the woman who accused Gayatri Prajapati and his aides of gang rape-- also claims that her mother has turned hostile after receiving money and other inducements from the former minister and was co-plotting to eliminate her .

The key witness alleged that Anil Prajapati and his aide attempted to kidnap her on September 21, two kilometres outside Bindaki town in Fatehpur district, when the car she was travelling in from Kanpur to Banda --along with another case-witness Ram Singh-- had stopped for her to attend nature’s call.

According to the FIR, Anil Prajapati tried to strangulate her while his aide Abhishek Tewari incited him to kill her to save his father after the duo had pulled her inside their vehicle, when she stepped out of her car. She was able to free herself upon intervention by two motorcyclists who heard her screams when passing by, she says.

She says the police didn’t add kidnapping section in the FIR despite her pleas and she will challenge it in the court. Inspector of Bindaki police station Nand Lal Singh confirmed that the FIR was registered for rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful confinement, stalking, damage to phone and criminal intimidation but not attempt to kidnap.

The witness also alleges that her mother was now coercing her and Ram Singh to turn hostile as she had taken “five houses and crores of rupees” from the former minister. She had earlier on August 27, accused her mother of hatching a conspiracy with the former minister to murder her. The former minister’s aides and the girl’s mother, had, however, refuted the allegations and claimed she had been misled by other people.

The complainant’s mother had accused the former minister and his six aides of raping her multiple times between October 2013 and July 2016. The mother had said she finally lodged an FIR on February 18, 2017 when the accused tried to rape her 17-year old daughter.

Charges under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were slapped against the former minister and other accused on her complaint.

The daughter says “Anil Prajapati wants to murder me since the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court took my opposition into account while denying senior Prajapati bail on September 13.” “Anil had even threatened me with dire consequences when the former minister’s bail was rejected in the court,” she added in her complaint.

The former minister, who is in judicial custody after his arrest on March 15, 2017, is admitted at King George’s Medical University (KGMU) for over four months now due to alleged kidney problem.