Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday held the Samajwadi Party responsible for the murder of a farmer in Hathras on Monday. Yogi again targeted the 'lal topi' in Hathras allegedly linked to the Samajwadi Party. 

"Why is it that the name of Samajwadi Party gets dragged into every incident of crime in the state? In Hathras farmer's murder too, pictures of the main accused in red cap with Samajwadi Party leaders were circulating whole day on social media," he said.

Replying to the general debate in the assembly on the 2021-22 UP budget, the chief minister took the opportunity to flay the opposition party, a day after allegations were levelled that the accused in a Hathras killing was an SP worker who was out on bail.

"Why is it so that the SP's name gets dragged into every incident of crime? Why?" the chief minister asked. He said the "Samajwadi" (socialist) movement had become impractical but its leaders were not ready to accept the truth.

Yogi Adityanath's remarks came against the backdrop of a 50-year-old man allegedly being shot dead in Hathras on March 1 by Gaurav Sharma, an accused out on bail, in a molestation case lodged in 2018. Sharma was accused of molesting the victim's daughter.

The chief minister said the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday organised a rally in Aligarh where the posters and hoardings had been put up by the criminal linked with the Samajwadi Party. The chief minister said the daughter of the victim had also stated about the links of the murder accused with the Samajwadi Party.

Leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary claimed that the pictures of the main accused with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were also in circulation on social media, however, the chief minister clarified that the posters of the main accused with Samajwadi Party leaders were pasted all over the city for the party rally.

Taking note of the incident, Yogi Adityanath on March 2 ordered strict action against the accused and directed officials to invoke provisions of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against them.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet on March 2, alleged that women in Uttar Pradesh had lost hope of getting justice from the state government and tagged a video of a girl.

The BJP state unit then alleged that the main accused in the Hathras incident was SP worker Gaurav Sharma, who runs his social media pages with the name Gaurav Songra. 

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, however, rejected the charge, saying, "Gaurav is not a leader of the Samajwadi Party but of the BJP. There are photographs of Gaurav with BJP leaders to prove this."