Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath  slammed Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav for terming the encounter of Pushpendra Yadav as ‘’fake’’, saying it was a genuine police action.

The Chief Minister said that a police inspector was first shot at by Pushpendra Yadav, who escaped with the cop’s car.

The police inspector, who was hurt, alerted another team, which intercepted the car 40 kilometres away from the place where the police inspector was shot at. Here Yadav opened fire at the police party again and was finally gunned down, the Chief Minister said.

“One police officer was also injured in the encounter. Nobody has the right to take law in one’s hands, be it police, politician or anyone else. Everyone in the state will have to abide by law,” Yogi Adityanath said.

On Akhilesh Yadav’s remark that people were being killed in the state, the Chief Minister said, “People are not being killed deliberately. I think all those who are a threat to society have been close to Akhilesh Yadav. Today when such people are living in fear, it is natural for Akhilesh to feel bad about it.”

Last week, the SP chief had visited deceased Pushpendra Yadav’s family in Jhansi. He had said that when the Samajwadi Party forms government in 2022, the case will be investigated again and those responsible for Pushpendra’s death will be punished.

‘’This is not an encounter, it is police lynching. Pushpendra was married three months back and now his wife’s future is in dark’’ Akhilesh Yadav had then said.

The Chief Minister also refuted the allegation of Samajwadi Party’s Rampur MP on his implication in criminal cases.

“Everyone knows the reality and law has taken its own course,” Yogi Adityanath said.