UP Elections: Rahul Gandhi vs BJP over state of human rights in Uttar Pradesh

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also hit out at the BJP over the custodial deaths.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the latter’s tweet questioning the presence of human rights in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. Taking a dig at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi had said, “Is there anything called human rights left in Uttar Pradesh?” Rahul Gandhi’s remarks came in wake of the death of a Muslim youth in police custody under mysterious circumstances.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Yogi Adityanath’s information advisor Shalabh Mani Tripathi shared a video of a Gorakhpur man who had rented out his property to the Congress party but did not get the rent. “Do not withhold the rent of Gorakhpur’s elderly man Rajman Rai ji. Is there anything called morality left?” said Tripathi.

In the video, Rajman Rai can be heard saying, “The Congress office has been locked out because I did not receive rent till date. I have been asking it time and again. They claim to have been talking to senior leadership, to Priyanka Gandhi, to Ratnesh, but they kept giving me lollipops….The rent is due since the Lok Sabha polls of 2019…Haven’t got even a single paisa.”

गोरखपुर के बुजुर्ग राजमन राय जी का किराया मत मारिए, दे दीजिए, नैतिकता नाम की कोई चीज़ बची है ? https://t.co/HYxZGaEzkB pic.twitter.com/6sP5dCxiLh

— Shalabh Mani Tripathi (@shalabhmani) November 10, 2021

While Tripathi launched a counter-attack, he stopped short of commenting on the custodial death issue.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also hit out at the BJP over the custodial deaths. “It is clear from incidents like the death of Altaf in Kasganj, Arun Valmiki in Agra, Rajesh Kori in Sultanpur in police custody that the protectors have become killers. UP tops the country in terms of police custodial death. The law and order situation is in complete disarray under the BJP rule. No one is safe here,” said Priyanka.

कासगंज में अल्ताफ, आगरा में अरुण वाल्मीकि, सुल्तानपुर में राजेश कोरी की पुलिस कस्टडी में मौत जैसी घटनाओं से साफ है कि रक्षक भक्षक बन चुके हैं।

उप्र पुलिस हिरासत में मौत के मामले में देश में सबसे ऊपर है। भाजपा राज में कानून व्यवस्था पूरी तरह चौपट है। यहां कोई भी सुरक्षित नहीं है।

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) November 10, 2021

A 22-year-old man called for questioning in a kidnapping case died at Kasganj police station on Tuesday. His family members alleged that he was killed by police personnel. Five policemen have been suspended for negligence in the wake of the incident.

Narrating the sequence of events, Kasganj’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohan Pramod Botre said, “One Altaf (of Nagla Syed locality) was called for questioning in Kasganj police station in a case related to IPC section 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage) on Tuesday morning…During interrogation, he requested the policemen to let him go to the washroom and was allowed to use the washroom inside the lockup…He was wearing a black jacket. He tried to strangulate himself with a string of the (jacket’s) hood that he tied to the tap of the toilet. When he did not return, the policemen went inside and found him unconscious. He was rushed to the community health centre in Ashok Nagar, where he died.”