Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was giving shelter and patronage to criminals and mafia.
“The recent killing of Pushpendra Yadav in a fake encounter in Jhansi has raised serious questions on the intentions of the Yogi Adityanath government. A BJP leader accused of rape and getting massage from a young student is being protected by the state government while the rape victim has been implicated in false cases and is in jail,” the SP chief said here on Friday.
Addressing a meeting to mark the birth anniversary of late socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan at JP Centre here on Friday, Akhilesh Yadav said that the country can flourish only if it follows the path shown by the great leader.
“The country is facing the same challenges now that were there at the time of JP. The socialist movement of ‘ Sampurna Kranti’ can save the country from the downfall and the rising prices,” he said.
Referring to the Jhansi encounter in which a young transporter, Pushpendra Yadav, was killed in an alleged police encounter, the SP chief said if no action was taken against the accused police officers, the people would lose faith in the police and other institutions of the state.
“Everyone, even the BJP leaders, know that the killing of Pushpendra Yadav was a cold-blooded murder by the inspector of Moth police station in Jhansi district. But they have preferred to remain silent on this issue,” he said, adding that “it is common knowledge in Jhansi who were the big mafia who used police to kill an innocent youth”.
Commenting on the Shahjahanpur case, Akhilesh Yadav said it was unfortunate that “a girl who is a rape victim is languishing in jail while the person who used her for massage is being protected by the government”.
The SP president also hit out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for withdrawing cases registered against him.
“It is for the first time that a chief minister has withdrawn cases registered against him in the past,” he said.
The SP chief said that the rate of crime had increased in UP but the government was patting its back for achievements that never happened.
