Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the police encounter of a man involved in a robbery in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Saturday said touching the Constitution to the forehead in front of the cameras is just pretence “when your governments are openly violating it”.
Gandhi said that all suspicious encounters in UP should be investigated impartially. Mangesh Yadav, allegedly involved in a `1.5 crore robbery at a jewellery store in Sultanpur, was killed in an encounter with the police early Thursday, officials said. Yadav was carrying a reward of `1 lakh on his arrest.
However, Gandhi raised concerns about the increasing number of encounters under the BJP’s rule in Uttar Pradesh, accusing the Special Task Force (STF) of operating like a “criminal gang” under the BJP’s watch.
“A professional force like the STF is being run like a ‘criminal gang’ under the BJP government, on which the silence of the central government is their clear consent to this ‘Thoko Niti’ (shootout policy),” he said, adding that multiple encounters by the STF have come under scrutiny, yet no action has been taken against the officers involved.
“The tears of Mangesh’s family are asking a question to the whole country—who will live and who will not, will this be decided by the court or the police?” he asked, calling for an impartial investigation into the encounter.
