Bulandshahr gangrape case: Mayawati slams Akhilesh Yadav, demands resignation

BSP Supremo Mayawati on Monday demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in the wake of the brutal gangrape of a woman and her teenage daughter by bandits on gunpoint on Friday night.

“This incident has exposed that there is no law and order but jungle raj in Uttar Pradesh,” said Mayawati. The Samajwadi Party government has come under intense flak over the incident. “If you can't manage the state, you should resign as the chief minister on moral grounds,” she said. 

The BJP had on Sunday criticised the state government for laying expressways and highways without caring for the safety and security of the users, while BSP said such heinous crimes indicated towards deteriorating law and order situation and ‘jungle raj’ in the state.

“The SP government and its head must tell the people if they can return the modesty of women in such a painful and henious crime,” Mayawati said in a statement on Sunday, adding common people, especially women, were not safe in present SP regime.

Uttar Pradesh Police claimed to have held three of the accused involved in the gangrape. UP DGP Javeed Ahmed, who was rushed to Bulandshahr by Akhilesh Yadav after the incident at village Dostpur here on Delhi-Kanpur highway came into limelight, identified the three detained as Naresh (25), Bablu(22) and Rais (28).

He said police had taken into custody 15 persons, all of them belonging to a nomadic tribe, last evening and interrogated them.

Three of those held who belonged to Bawariya gang have been identified by the victims and all the culprits would be booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA), he said.

As the incident, which occurred near bypass when the family from Noida was from travelling to Shahjahanpur on NH-91, acquired a political hue, the Chief Minister went into a fire-fighting mode and suspended SSP Bulandshahr Vaibhav Kishan, SP city Rammohan Singh , Circle Officer (Sadar) Himanshu Gaurav and SHO Ramsen Singh of Kotwali Dehat, amid allegations of laxity by police.

The DGP accompanied by Principal Secretary (Home) visited the site of the incident on the direction of the CM. The police chief, however, rubbished the charge that police did not act swiftly, saying they reached the spot within 20 minutes of getting information and SSP Vibhav Krishna also arrived there.

Opposition parties alleged that the “barbaric” incident showed that “goonda raj” was at its peak in the state where Assembly elections were due in early 2017.

(With PTI inputs)