Rape accused ex-Samajwadi Party Minister Gayatri Prajapati arrested from Lucknow

File photo of Gayatri Prasad Prajapati (PTI photo)

New Delhi: Gangrape accused Samajwadi Party leader and former UP Minister Gayatri Prajpati was on Wednesday morning arrested by UP Police and later sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court. He was held as soon as he returned to the UP  capital from an undisclosed location. Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow, Manzil Saini told newsagency PTI that Prajapati was arrested from Aashiyana area of  the city early this morning. Prajapati, considered close to the Yadav family, had been on the run since an FIR was lodged against him in February this year on a directive of the Supreme Court. The gang rape victim had accused the minister's henchmen of terrorising her and her daughter in a Delhi hospital. Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Javeed Ahmad said, Gayatri was being tracked for some time and that he was constantly changing location from Delhi-NCR. In the just-concluded Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Prajapati lost to BJP from Amethi, the seat he held. (FIRST VISUALS OF GAYATRI PRAJAPATI AFTER HIS ARREST) ARREST AFTER FAMILY INTERROGATED Lucknow Police on Tuesday had nabbed three more accomplices of the SP leader and had interrogated his two sons and nephew to get clues about his whereabouts. The arrests were made in Hazratganj area in central Lucknow, IG (Lucknow) A Satish Ganesh told PTI. With this, all the six persons named in the FIR against the 49-year-old SP leader have been picked up. Police interrogated his two sons and nephew to get some inputs regarding his whereabouts, Senior Superintendent of Police (Lucknow) Manzil Saini said on on Tuesday. She said the UP police planned to attach two properties of the former minister in Lucknow and one in Amethi, his assembly constituency, to force him to surrender. Earlier, Prajapati's two aides were arrested from Noida near Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway on March 7. The minister's security guard Chandrapal was arrested on March 6 near Lucknow Police lines. SUPREME COURT DIRECTIVE Prajapati was booked on a Supreme Court directive and an FIR was lodged on February 17 against the minister and six others for allegedly gang-raping a woman and alleged attempt to rape her minor daughter. The apex court had asked the UP Police to submit an action taken report regarding the incidents in eight weeks. A Look Out notice was issued against him as also a Non-Bailable Warrant. His passport too has been impounded. Airports across the country had been alerted about the possibility of Prajapati trying to flee the country.