On June 19, 2017, a news report was carried on our portal Uttarpradesh.org based on reports from news agencies about the nomination of OP Mishra as the POCSO judge and the subsequent bail granted to up ex- minister Gayatri Prajapati in a rape case. We now know that the source of the news story was misleading. When Allahabad High Court appointed Laxmi Kant Rathore as Special Judge , Anti-Corruption/UPSEB by its Notifification dtd. 30-03-2017 and Rathore took charge of Anti- Corruption/UPSEB on 06-04-201, the former District Judge Rajendra Singh nominated OP Mishra as POCSO Judge on 07-07-2017 as per notification and informed the High Court on the same date. The former District Judge Rajendra Singh was not in any manner involved in either the nomination of the POCSO judge or the grant of bail to the former minister. We reiterate that the source of the information for the news story were reports of other news agencies. The story was removed from our portal in Nov, 2017. We deeply regret the publication of the misleading news story and tender an unconditional apology.
