JHANSI: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav visited the home of a youth who was killed in a police encounter over alleged illegal sand mining, and lashed out at the BJP government, saying he had no trust in the state police and the administration.
Yadav on Wednesday met the family members of Pushpendra Yadav, who was killed last week.
"Not much should be expected from the police force of a state where the chief minister openly asks them to 'thok dalo' (shoot) those taking law in their own hands," he said.
"I have no faith in the police and administration of the state," Akhilesh said.
The BJP hit back at him on Wednesday, saying he was more concerned about the sand mining mafia and caste arithmetic.
"It was an encounter but Akhilesh has to go to the person's house because he is in love with the sand mining mafia and has to take care of caste equation. But he does not care how the sand mining mafia should be eradicated. This is precisely why he was thrown out by the people in elections," senior BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said.
Alleging that the police killed the youth in Jhansi last week in a staged gunfight, the SP president reiterated his demand for lodging of a murder case against the SHO involved and a probe into the incident by a sitting high court judge.
"No one believes the police's theory on the encounter. Actually it is not an encounter but a murder by the police. The family members have not even got the postmortem report," he claimed, adding that the police should not have had any objection to the family's demand of filing a case.
"It is surprising that even the last rites were performed by the police without the family members. Is this Ram Rajya? Yadav asked.
He alleged that there had been many such killings in Sonebhadhra, Saharanpur, Noida, Azamgarh and Shamli and the people had no faith in the probe by the government and administration.
"It is very unfortunate that the government and administration are together in saving the police station in-charge. There appears to be some big conspiracy behind this," he said.
On Thursday, he said, "There are many loopholes in the police story." Akhilesh Yadav said he has "no trust" in the police and the administration.
"Which Ram Raj is going on in UP? This is not Ram Raj but Nathuram Raj. With mob lynching, police lynching have also started in the state," he told reporters at a press conference.
Yadav said that he has assured the family all possible help.
While Jhansi SSP OP Singh had told reporters on the night of the encounter that the thana in-charge was returning in his private vehicle after vacation when the incident took place, the SHO concerned said that he was on patrol at the time of incident.
The police claimed that Pushpendra ran a sand mining business and was shot dead on Sunday by a police team after he opened fire at the police inspector who had seized his truck used for sand mining, a few days earlier.
The family members of the deceased alleged that the police officer in charge of the area, Dharmendra Chauhan, was demanding Rs 1.5 lakh bribe to release the youth's truck and he killed Yadav when he refused to pay and threatened to expose him.