The BJP on Monday attacked UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul for their “silence” on the murder of a woman, who had accused a Samajwadi Party MlA of rape and alleged that the ruling dispensation was trying to save the culprit.
BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged grave crimes witnessed steep rise in SP’s five-year rule with the accused going scot-free in many of the cases. He charged the police with remaining busier in hiding evidence in the crime than uncovering it.
“The murder of a woman after she accused the MlA of raping her is shameful. What is more shameful is the silence of Akhilesh Yadav and his ally Rahul Gandhi. The State Government has been trying to save the accused,” he told reporters here. Describing the two rival leaders as “tragedy tourists”, Sharma accused them of using deaths for politics. He said Yadav and Rahul have chosen to be silent as the accused is a sitting MlA and now a SP candidate in the ongoing Assembly polls.
Sharma, who was the BJP candidate from Mathura, said UP has recorded more than 6.80 lakh crimes since the SP government came to power almost five years ago with incidents of sexual crimes against women especially seeing a drastic rise.
The body of the 22-year-old woman, who was missing since Saturday, was found on Sunday near a primary school in Jaisinghpur area of Sultanpur, police said.
It added that the injury mark around her neck suggested that she was strangled to death.
The MlA, Arun Verma, has denied the charges, calling them a conspiracy against him.
The BJP leader said if voted to power the BJP would do a “surgical strike” against criminals and those giving them political patronage. eom