Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati was granted bail in a rape case on Tuesday by a special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in Lucknow. He was arrested on March 15 over charges of allegedly gangraping a 35-year-old woman with six others and molesting her minor daughter in 2014.

The 49-year-old had maintained that he was innocent. “This is a conspiracy to malign me,” he had said after his arrest. He had been absconding for while after the Supreme Court had directed an FIR against him on February 17. A lookout notice and non-bailable warrant had been issued against him, and the police had also seized his passport.

On March 7, Prajapati’s two aides were arrested in Noida near Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway, while his security guard Chandrapal was picked up on March 6 near Police Lines area in Lucknow. The Supreme Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to provide protection to the woman’s family.