Akhilesh terms encounter of Atiq's son fake, slams BJP

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh of carrying out a 'fake encounter' to eliminate the son of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his associate in Jhansi.

Akhilesh said that the ruling party was trying to divert the attention of the people from the real issues plaguing the state.

He said the BJP government did not believe in the judiciary and was taking the law into its own hands. He said it was not right for those in power to pass judgement on who was right or wrong and to decide who should live or die.

Yadav tweeted in Hindi, "With fake encounters, the BJP government is trying to divert attention from the real issues. The BJP does not believe in courts at all. Today's and recent encounters should also be thoroughly investigated and the culprits should not be spared. Those in power do not have the right to decide what is right or wrong. BJP is against harmony."

Akhilesh was reacting to the encounter of Asad, son of Atiq Ahmad and shooter Ghulam, both of whom were killed in an encounter in Jhansi on Thursday.

According to the police, Asad and Ghulam were trying to flee on a motorcycle when they were intercepted by a Special Task Force team in Jhansi. They opened fire on the STF team and were killed in retaliatory firing. The police claimed to have recovered sophisticated foreign-made weapons from them.

The encounter took place on a day when Ahmad was presented before a court in Prayagraj in the same murder case and was sent to seven-day police custody.