The rape accused Samajwadi Party leader Gayatri Prajapati, who was absconding for the last 16 days, has been arrested on Wednesday morning by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The arrest has been confirmed by Manzil Saini, a senior Superintendent of Police, who told PTI that they found Prajapati from Aashiyana area in Lucknow.

Prajapati told the police that he had been on the run since February 27 and spent his time in West Bengal and some southern states.

He is likely to be produced before the POCSO Court later in the day.

On Tuesday, the police had made a breakthrough by arresting three of Prajapati’s accomplices. Two of them where Prajapati’s sons who were held for giving shelter to the accused.

Police had questioned Prajapati’s sons to know the whereabouts of their absconding father. They had revealed information about some people who were in touch with Prajapati, which helped the investigators zero in on him.

The Special Task Force had arrested two more accomplices of Prajapati last week from Noida.

All the arrested associates of Prajapati have been named as co-accused in the case.

Prajapati was accused of raping a woman whom he had met three years ago. She had alleged that the minister had raped her after she fell unconscious drinking a cup of tea laced with sedatives. Prajapati allegedly took her photographs and threatened to make the photos public and continued to rape her for the next two years. Prajapati allegedly molested even the victim’s daughter.

Prajapati and six others were booked under the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act on 18 February.

A non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued against Prajapati, who was absconding and was last seen on 27 February. Alerts were issued to all the airports of the country asking authorities not to let him fly out.

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The Logical Indian applauds the investigation conducted by the UP Police who successfully found out Prajapati and arrested him.