UP not mafia-free, smaller mafias have merged into a mega-mafia: Akhilesh

Yadav's comments came after lawyer Akhilesh Dubey and aide Lavi Mishra were arrested in Kanpur for allegedly running an extortion racket, filing false rape cases to blackmail figures

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday accused the BJP-led state government of corruption, citing the recent arrest of a Kanpur lawyer for running an extortion racket.

In an X post in Hindi, Yadav said there is a "triangle of BJP corruption" in Uttar Pradesh -- "the corrupt BJP government involved in fake encounters, corrupt officials amassing black money and shielded by the BJP, and a corrupt lawyer covering up their misdeeds."  Targeting the Yogi Adityanath government's anti-mafia campaign, Yadav wrote, "The corrupt individuals who earned crores of rupees were never spotted by drones or binoculars, the matter came to light only when their own extortion racket was exposed. Let's see whether the bulldozers move on their own against encroachments by this BJP-backed land mafia after my post, or some bigger extortionist will hush up the matter by collecting money from everyone."

He further said, "Where are those who claimed that Uttar Pradesh has become mafia-free? The truth is, Uttar Pradesh has not become 'mafia-free', instead the smaller mafias have merged into a 'mega mafia'."  Yadav's remarks referred to the arrest of lawyer Akhilesh Dubey and his aide Lavi Mishra in Kanpur earlier this month. They duo was accused of running an extortion racket by filing false rape cases to blackmail high-profile individuals, including BJP leader Ravi Satija.

According to police, Dubey and Mishra were arrested on August 6 after a month-long 'Operation Mahakal' was launched to crack down on extortion rackets and land mafia. Dubey had blackmailed several people over the years, misusing legal processes for personal gain, they said.