Ajay Mittal from Meerut
Imagine when a woman, aged about 35, has to approach the Supreme Court to get an FIR lodged after her rape, gang rape and molestation of her minor daughter by a cabinet minister. Imagine the state of affairs when even the state Director General of Police would not order such registration of FIR although the Supreme Court had in 2013 given clear instruction to the state police to register all cognizable offences without delaying on the pretext of preliminary investigation. This is what happened on February 17 in the Supreme Court when it had to order an FIR against UP Transport Minister Gayatri Prajapati for heinous crimes as noted above, and filing of status report in the matter within 8 weeks.
The woman, herself a Samajwadi Party functionary at corporation level, was allegedly lured by the minister in 2014 promising her a plum position in the party. He took her vulgar photographs, blackmailed her into
sexual submission, repeatedly raped her and got her gang-raped by his near ones. Afterwards, he even tried to molest her daughter (17). This was the last straw. She approached the police chief of UP with her story to get an FIR against the high and mighty Prajapati in October 2016, but to no avail. Thereafter, she went to the Supreme Court, which issued notices to the concerned parties, including the state of UP in November.
Meanwhile, during September 2016, Gayatri Prajapati was dropped from the ministry by the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav amidst allegations of large scale corruption against him in the media and five ongoing probes against him by the Lokayukt. The latter included a case of amassing money to the tune of Rs 1,000 crores in alleged illegal mining scams. Prajapati was then the minister of mining. But he was re-inducted into the cabinet, this time as minister of transport, only within less than a week. He then publicly prostrated himself at the feet of Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, a scene whose photograph is still remembered by the UP people.
Prajapati, who hailed from a BPL (Below Poverty Line) family when he contested his first election in 2002, now has a fleet of Mercedes, BMW and other expensive cars. But he still avails benefits of government plans for the welfare of BPL families. He took money under kanya shiksha yojna for the education of his daughter from the
government, for example.
But despite his corrupt image and alleged immoral activities, Gayatri Prajapati remained Akhilesh Yadav’s blue-eyed boy. This is evident from the fact that when the CM kick-started his election campaign, he did so sharing the dais at Sultanpur with him. Not only that, even after the Supreme Court ordered filing of FIR for heinous crimes like rape, gang-rape and molestation of a minor girl against Prajapati (and six others), the CM solicited votes for him at Amethi, the constituency from where he is contesting. He, however, took care not to be seen in his company on the stage. But, ask the people, how is it that an accused under the POCSO Act, is defying police arrest even after
speaking publicly from the same stage on which the head of the State Government himself later appeared
for canvassing.
The Atiq Ahmad case
Almost simultaneously with the SC order in the Prajapati case, Allahabad High Court gave an extremely damning order regarding arrest and cancellation of bail of former Samajvadi Party MP Atiq Ahmad. Atiq who has 83 criminal cases registered against him out of which 45 are of serious nature including those involving murder and kidnapping. He was declared the SP candidate from Kanpur Cantt seat on December 10 last year by Shiv Pal Singh, the then state chief of the party. He immediately swung into action and showed a trailer of what was in store. He barged into SHIATS, a deemed university in Naini, Allahabad along with a gang of his goons and beat up the staff there on December 14. The pretext was that the university authorities had taken action against two wayward students, Saifi Siddiqui and S Ahmad caught cheating in the examinations. The two were debarred, and when they threatened their teachers with dire consequences and even tried to rough them up, the authorities had to
register an FIR against them. Atiq went there to pressurise the university into withdrawing the case. But to his bad luck, the assault made by him and his weapon-wielding supporters on the staff got recorded by surveillance cameras. The security chief of the university registered an FIR against Atiq and his supporters. But as is the wont of UP police, no action was taken by them in the matter. The emboldened former MP, began further intimidation. The university officials asked for police protection, which was not provided. At last, Ram Kishan Singh, proctor and the security officer of SHIATS had to go to the HC seeking security for self and colleagues, as also legal action against the SP strongman.
High Court’s admonition
The division bench of the honourable court comprising Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhonsle and Justice Yashwant Verma demanded from the police the entire criminal record of Atiq. It was aghast at the fact that while on bail, the SP leader continued to indulge in criminal
activities and the state police never moved the courts to get his bails
cancelled as per the apex court’s direction in this regard. The bench asked whether criminals were running the government in UP. The Chief Justice remarked that during his judicial career of 31 years, he had never seen such grim state of affairs as obtaining in UP. The bench ordered immediate proceeding on part of UP police to get all bails of Atiq Ahmad cancelled. It also asked the police to arrest him forthwith. It admonished the investigating officer for his two-month long inaction in the SHIATS case. It made the SP (crimes) Allahabad as the I.O. in the case and ordered him to quickly bring Atiq and other accomplices to justice failing which he would have to be transferred. It said the Court would hand over the case to some agency other than the UP police if it was found wanting in its dealing of the same.
The observations and order of the High Court in the case is seen to be the severest judicial censure of Akhilesh
government.
Leave a Comment