For Rise in Rape Cases, Akhilesh Yadav ‘Punishes’ Officers

Lucknow:  Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has ordered action against officers and bureaucrats for lack of progress in rape cases.

A tweet from the Chief Minister’s Office today said, “CM instructs CS to take action against those delinquent DMs/ SSPs (District Magistrates and Senior Superintendents of Police) who haven’t followed-up prosecution in rape cases in their monthly review.”

Mr Yadav and his Samajwadi Party have been battling criticism over a series of rapes and killings in India’s most populous state.

Commenting on the incidents, the state’s outgoing Governor Aziz Qureshi said that the “entire police force” could not prevent rapes, adding, “Perhaps divine intervention can stop rapes.”

Last month, the Chief Minister ordered a massive reshuffle of his officers, passing the blame for poor law and order on to his administration.

Mr Yadav’s crackdown comes days after Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Chief Minister’s father, invited outrage for these remarks- “There are 21 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, yet the number of such cases are the least here.”

This was his response to reporters who had questioned him about the alleged rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman in Lucknow last week. The woman’s badly mutilated body was found at a school; she had been repeatedly stabbed in her private parts.

A series of callous comments have marked the state government’s response to criticism over the alleged rape and murder of two teen girls from Badaun in May.

The girls, who were cousins, were allegedly beaten and hanged alive. Asked to comment on the case last month, Mulayam Singh said, “You do your work, I will do mine.”

In the same month, the 40-year-old chief minister had suggested a “Google search” to understand that women are raped elsewhere in the country too.