Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court granted seven days parole to former minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati for attending his daughter's wedding. The Samajwadi Party leader had applied for a 56-day short-term bail in lieu of the wedding, but with the state government opposing his bail plea, the court granted him parole for a week.
The Lucknow bench has directed Prajapati to surrender after the marriage. The parole was granted by a single bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan after hearing the short-term bail petition filed by Prajapati. He has been in prison since 2017 after he was arrested in a rape case in Ghazipur.
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Earlier, the state government had opposed his bail plea, citing that nine criminal cases were registered against him and that he should not be granted bail. The bail petitions were filed stating his daughter's marriage scheduled for March 5, 2023. Prajapati argued that it was mandatory for him to attend the marriage function and perform rituals at the ceremony as a father. Out of the three petitions, two petitions relate to cases registered against Prajapati in Ghazipur and Gomtinagar extension police stations. The third petition pertains to the case registered with the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The case registered at the Gomtinagar extension police station was filed by Brijbhan Choubey, former director of a company owned by Prajapati. Choubey had accused the Samajwadi leader of cheating and threatening. Meanwhile, the second case registered with the Ghazipur police also involves cheating and threatening, wherein an advocate had filed the said case against Prajapati. The former cabinet minister is also accused of amassing a disproportionate amount of assets and for this, a case was filed by the ED.
