With election to Amethi Assembly constituency less than a week away, the rape charges against SP candidate and minister Gayatri Prajapati took political hue after Prajapati accused BJP chief Amit Shah for conspiring against him and perceived threat to his life.
“It is a political conspiracy to tarnish my image at the behest of the BJP. My life is in danger,” asserted Prajapati while addressing a rally at Gauriganj of Amethi just before the arrival of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday.
To prove his innocence and ensure that the rape charges did not hamper the electral prospects, Prajapati even broke down after referring to a conspiracy to damage his prospect.
Interestingly, just before the arrival of the Chief Minister, Prajapati was asked to leave the dais to keep Akhilesh Yadav away from any controversy. Prajapati was seen wiping his tears while leaving the dais.
Addressing the same election rally, Akhilesh rerfrained from refering to his controversial cabinet colleague. Prajapati is locked in a three-corner contest with SP’s alliance partner Congress fielding MP Sanjay Singh’s wife Ameeta Singh and the BJP fielding Sanjay Singh’s estrange wife Garima Singh.
It may be mentioned that at a rally in Siddharth Nagar, Shah took potshots at the SP for painting a ‘false picture’ of its clean image and alleged that the state occupied the top spot in murders and crime against women.
State BJP chief Kesav Prasad Maurya alleged that Akhilesh shielded criminals and rapists and because of this the Apex Court had to intervene in the Gayatrio Prajapati case.
The BJP also targeted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over her poll campaign at Rae Bareli for the Congress-SP alliance and termed that it was `unfortunate’ that she was seeking votes for those accused of ‘rape and murder’.
Earlier, Prajapati had said he did not know the woman who had levelled charges against him but promised to honour the judgement of the Apex Court.
Tainted former Minining minister Gayatri Prajapati was sacked by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav but was reinducted in the council of ministers. He was however stripped of the Mining department and given Transport instead. He is a close associate of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and his tenure as the Mining minister was under cloud, prompting the Allahabad High Court to order a CBI probe into the allegations of irregularities against him.
last week, the Apex Court had directed the UP Police to file a case and submit status report within eight weeks. A 35-year-old woman had accused Prajapati of raping her when she met him three years ago. He also took some obscene photos of the victim and threatening to go public with the raped her for the next two years, the complainant had alleged.