Summary:
Lucknow, Nov 12 (PTI) Former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati and two others were awarded life imprisonment for raping a woman by a special court here on Friday.
The court that hears cases against lawmakers also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each convict.
Prajapati and two other convicts Ashok Tiwari and Ashish Shukla were present in the court when it pronounced the judgment.
Judge P K Rai had on Wednesday held Prajapati, a key figure in the previous Akhilesh Yadav government, and his accomplices guilty of raping the woman and also trying to rape her minor daughter.
It said the prosecution has been able to prove charges against them beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, the court acquitted four others--Vikas Verma, Roopeshwar, Amrendra Singh, alias Pintu, and Chandrapal--due to lack of evidence.