UP Congress chief Lallu says CM Yogi failed to protect women, set to visit Balrampur gang-rape victim’s kin

Launching a fresh salvo against CM Yogi Adityanath-led UP government for failing to protect “sisters and mothers” in the state, UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu accused him of providing patronage to criminals and anti-social elements.

Attacking the CM for failing to maintain law and order in the state, Lallu questioned the role of the much-touted ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ set up by the Yogi government.

“Where have all ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ gone? Have all they gone to the moon?” he asked.

“Yogi set up ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ promising better law and order and protection of women in the state, but failed miserably... just making noises over women’s safety is not something that a CM should do,” added Lallu, saying that he will soon be visiting the family of the gang-rape victim in Balrampur.

In Balrampur, a college-going Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by two Muslim men on Tuesday. She had gone to college to pay her fees but was abducted and raped by the accused, claimed her family members. She reportedly came home in a rickshaw with a glucose drip attached to her arm. According to the police, she was in a bad shape and her relatives took her to a hospital, but she died on the way.

Giving a religious spin to the incident, the BJP questioned Congress’ agitation over the Hathras gang-rape case and alleged that the Congress did not pay heed to the Balrampur gang-rape case because the accused belonged to the Muslim community.

Saying that rapists, criminals and anti-social elements do not have a religion or caste, Lallu remarked, “This is their way of looking into things...Those who commit crime must be dealt heavily whether they are Hindu or Muslim.”

“BJP is trying to deflect people’s attention from the real issue and the issue is that under BJP’s rule, law and order has deteriorated severely in UP. Yogi’s ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ failed to protect the dignity of women in the state,” said Lallu.

Said to be an idea originally mooted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the creation of ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ was included in BJP’s manifesto in the 2017 UP Assembly election also.

Within less than three days of coming to power, Yogi Adityanath created ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ all over the state near colleges and schools to “ensure the safety of school and college-going girls”. Each squad consisted of two cops, mostly one male and one female, and two to three such teams could be deployed in the jurisdiction of one police station.

After creating a buzz in the first year of creation, however, the squads fizzled out. The Yogi government tried to revive it last year when the state recorded a surge in crime against women, but nothing much came of it.