Supeme Court had ordered the police to file a rape case against Gayatri Prajapati on a woman's complant.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scathing criticism, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav heads to Amethi today to campaign for a senior leader of his party who has been accused of gang-rape and molesting a minor. A first information report or FIR was registered over the weekend against controversial UP minister Gayatri Prajapati on the orders of the Supreme Court, which has also sought a police report within eight weeks. Mr Prajapati has earlier been accused of promoting illegal mining and was sacked as minister last year by Akhilesh Yadav over corruption charges, but was reinstated at the insistence of the Chief Minister's father and then Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Akhilesh Yadav had started his campaign for UP with Mr Prajapati by his side in Sultanpur, adjacent to Amethi, where the minister is the SP candidate and the sitting legislator. PM Modi pointed to that when he said in strong words at a public rally on Sunday, "Akhilesh ji you started your election campaign by campaigning for Gayatri Prajapati... the people of UP want to know if your SP-Congress alliance is as pure as Gayatri Prajapati."
The highest court had to intervene, the PM said, to have an FIR filed against Mr Prajapati. "Rapists are given a free hand and women have to knock the doors of the Supreme Court for justice - What work have you done Akhileshji? Your minister is in a rape case. This is not 'kaam' (work) but 'kaarnama' (deed)."
Union Minister Smriti Irani called the Samajwadi Party a "protector of rapists."
Mr Prajapati has been accused by a woman of repeatedly gang-raping her along with his associates and she has also alleged that he attempted to rape her minor daughter. She moved the Supreme Court, she said, after failing to convince the police in UP to register a case on her complaint.
On Friday the court ordered the UP police to file a case and also submit a report in sealed cover in eight weeks. Mr Prajapati has called it a "political conspiracy at the behest of the BJP to tarnish my image." He said he does know the woman who had made the allegations against him.
Months before the assembly elections, Mr Yadav had sacked Mr Prajapati and another minister both seen as close to Mulayam Singh and his younger brother Shivpal Yadav, with whom the young chief minister was locked in an intense power tussle. When he had to re-induct Mr Prajapati within a few days, he stripped him of his mining portfolio.
After he wrested full control of the party from his father and uncle, Akhilesh Yadav side-lined leaders close to them and dropped several tainted candidates that they wanted to field, but not Mr Prajapati. He rode roughshod over partner Congress' request that it be allowed to contest all 10 assembly seats in the Rae Bareli and Amethi parliamentary constituencies of its party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son and deputy Rahul Gandhi, fielding Mr Prajapati again from the Amethi assembly seat.
The Congress' Ameeta Singh has insisted on standing too, making it a contest between the allies.
Gayatri Prajapati is a backward caste leader with substantial following in the region. He had defeated Ameeta Singh in 2012 by almost 10,000 votes. The BJP, whose candidate had polled less than 10,000 votes, has fielded Garima Sinh, the first wife if Ameeta Singh's husband Sanjay Singh, a member of Amethi's former royal family.
Amethi votes next week in the fifth phase of the UP elections, being held on seven days. Votes will be counted on March 11.