What secret is BJP govt hiding with encounter: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday attacked the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the deceased in the "Allahabad murder case" was a member of the ruling party and the one whose name has cropped up is its minister.
"When will those BJP workers, who are destroying the image of party, be reduced to dust or removed from ministerial posts," Yadav asked in a tweet in Hindi.
"The deceased in the Allahabad murder case was a member of the BJP and the one whose name is coming up in the context of money is also a BJP minister. After all, what secret is the government hiding by doing the encounter," he asked.
The man who fired the first shot at Umesh Pal, a key witness in the killing of former BSP legislator Raju Pal in 2005, was gunned down in an encounter with Prayagraj police on Monday. Vijay Chaudhary, alias Usman, suffered bullet injuries in his neck, chest and thigh during an encounter, police have said.
Usman's wife Suhani has, however, accused police of killing him in a fake encounter after picking him up earlier in the day.
Police said aides of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, the main accused in the 2005 murder case who is lodged in a Gujarat prison, gave Vijay Chaudhary his second name "Usman".
His brother Rakesh Chaudhary is lodged in the Naini Central Jail and a dozen cases, including that of murder, have been registered against him.
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Prayagraj on Monday, Atiq Ahmed's sister Ayesha Noori accused Prayagraj Mayor Abhilasha Gupta Nandi of conspiring to kill Umesh Pal to embroil Shaista Parveen in the case, so that she could not contest the next mayoral election after the BSP declared her as its candidate.
Noori also accused Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, a minister in the state government, of not returning Rs 5 crore taken from Atiq Ahmed.
Reacting to the allegations levelled on him, 'Nandi' in a tweet in Hindi on Monday had said, "There is rule of law in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-ji! The Adityanath government is working on a zero-tolerance policy towards criminals and the mafia. Even in the Umesh Pal murder case, the action initiated is moving in this direction."
"The baseless allegations are only an unsuccessful attempt to divert attention from the main issue and mislead....Linking this with the mayoral elections is not only irrelevant but also laughable," he had said in another tweet.
Umesh Pal was killed on February 24.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Centre moves SC for withdrawing CRPF security to Unnao rape survivor, SC seeks her reply
New Delhi, Sep 24: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the 2017 Unnao rape survivor and her family members on the Centre's plea seeking withdrawal of CRPF security cover provided to them following the court's order in 2019. Expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar is serving a life term for kidnapping and raping the minor girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao area in 2017.
Taking note of the sensational rape case and the threat to lives of the survivor and others, the apex court on August 1, 2019, directed that the rape survivor, her mother, other members of the family and their lawyer be provided CRPF security.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked that the application of the Centre to be served on the victim and her family members. The bench also observed that since there is hardly any threat perception, it would like to close the case.
The Centre's counsel said no security cover is needed according to the threat analysis of the victim and her family members.
Advocate Ruchira Goel, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, submitted that everything, including the trial, was transferred to Delhi after the incident following the apex court's order.
The bench asked Goel where the victim resides at present. She replied that the woman and her family stay in Delhi.
On May 14, the top court had asked the Centre to file a separate application seeking withdrawal of CRPF security cover provided to the survivor, her family members and their lawyers.
The Centre submitted that the security cover may be provided by either the Delhi or Uttar Pradesh police and the CRPF be permitted to withdraw.
In 2019, the top court transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court to a court in Delhi with the direction to hold trial on daily basis and complete it within 45 days.
The Supreme Court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide Rs 25 lakh as interim compensation to the rape survivor.
The court had added that the CBI will have to complete within seven days the investigation into the accident in which the survivor and her lawyer were critically injured and two of her aunts killed.
Her father was arrested at the behest of Sengar in a case under the Arms Act and died in custody on April 9, 2018.
Sengar has sought the quashing of the trial court's December 2019 judgment that has sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. His appeal is pending in the Delhi High Court.
On March 13, 2020, Sengar was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in the case of death of the woman's father in custody. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 10 lakh. The court had awarded a 10-year jail term to Sengar's brother Atul Singh Sengar and five others in the case.
