Jungleraj in UP says Congress after another cop lynched

With another policeman killed in Uttar Pradesh by a mob on Saturday, the Congress said there was "jungle raj" under the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP regime, and that "mobocracy" has replaced democracy.

The incident happened in Ghazipur hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally there, when protestors demanding reservation for the Nishad caste, threw stones at a police party killing constable Suresh Vats.

According to the police, protestors belonging from the Nishad Party were behind Vats' killing.

This is the second instance of a policeman being lynched by a mob within a month in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed during a mob violence in Bulandshahr on December 3.

Condemning the incident, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said there was "jungle raj" in the state where neither public nor the police were safe.

"In Adityanath's jungle raj, neither the public is safe, nor the police. Democracy in BJP is mobocracy," tweeted Surjewala.

The killing of another policeman comes at a time when Adityanath has been facing flak from several quarters over Singh's lynching. Besides the Congress and other parties accusing the BJP of shielding the inspector's killers, a host of former bureaucrats demanded the Chief Minister's resignation.

Besides questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "stony silence", a group of over 80 ex-bureaucrats had expressed alarm over Singh's killing saying "politics of hate has taken the most dangerous turn".