BJP slams Akhilesh, Rahul for 'silence' on death of woman

BJP today attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for their "silence" on the murder of a woman, who had accused a Samajwadi Party MLA of rape.
BJP has claimed that the UP government led by Yadav was working to save the accused lawmaker.
Heinous crimes saw a sharp rise in the SP's five-year rule with the accused going scot-free in many of the cases, as police remained busier in hiding evidence than uncovering it, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged.
"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.

Calling the two rival leaders as "tragedy tourists", Sharma accused them of using deaths for politics. He said Yadav and Gandhi have chosen to be silent as the accused is a sitting MLA and now a SP candidate in the ongoing assembly polls.
Uttar Pradesh has rcorded 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 sharp rise, Sharma claimed.

The body of the 22-year-old woman, who was missing since Saturday, was found yesterday 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.
If the BJP comes to power, Sharma said, it would do a "surgical strike" against criminals and those giving them political patronage.
"Action will not be taken against them as long as SP is in power as it depends on supports of these criminals," he alleged.