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An MP/MLA court in Lucknow has sentenced Gayatri Prajapati and two others to life imprisonment in connection with the Chitrakoot Gang Rape Case of 2017.Prajapati was a cabinet minister in the previous Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh.

A fine of Rs 2 lakh each has also been imposed on the three convicts. Earlier, on Wednesday all three were held guilty by the Additional District and Session Judge Pawan Kumar Rai. Prajapati has been convicted under Section 376D of the IPC and Section 5/6 of the POCSO Act.

In this case, there were total of seven accused among which three have been convicted whereas four have been acquitted. 

Among two other convicted are Ashish Shukla, a former revenue clerk and Ashok Tiwari, a contractor. The four acquitted persons are Prajapati's gunner Chanderpal, additional personal secretary Rupeshwar alias Rupesh, Vikas Verma, son of a senior PCS officer and Amarendra Singh alias Pinto Singh who was Prajapati's representative in Amethi. 

The court has also ordered a probe to find out why the rape victim and two witnesses were turning hostile in the case. 

Following Supreme Court's directions on February 18, 2017 Prajapati, and six others were booked by UP Police after one woman from Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh had alleged that she was repeatedly raped by Prajapati on the pretext of allotting a mining license to her. She had also alleged that accused persons tried to molest her minor daughter, following which she had lodged the complaint.

An FIR was registered against the accused persons under Sections 376D (gangrape),  376 read with 511 (attempt to rape), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) among others under the Indian Penal Code and Section 5/6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

Prajapati was arrested on March 15, 2017 and has been in jail since then. In September last year, the Allahabad High Court had granted him bail on medical grounds, however, soon thereafter, in October, the bail got stayed by the Apex Court. 

Prajapati is also facing a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate. In 2019, the CBI had registered two FIRs in connection with the mining scam in Uttar Pradesh and had named Prajapati and four IAS officers.