Unsafe Pradesh: Big question marks on women's safety in Yogi's UP

Despite regular law-and-order review meetings in Uttar Pradesh, the lack of safety of women remains a concern in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had vociferously vowed to make UP safer for women, but three recent incidents bring out police apathy towards crime against women. 

In Baghpat, western UP, a 14-year-old girl killed herself after allegedly being accosted by those accused of raping her. The police let the accused roam around freely despite lodging a complaint of gang rape.

Only after the girl's suicide, did the police arrest the five accused. Inspector Sharad Tilara, the investigating officer of the case, has been suspended and his reccommendation to close the case has been rejected, the police said.

In Sant Kabir Nagar, eastern UP, another gang rape survivor set herself ablaze after allegedly being threatened over the phone by the rapists. The Class X student was the daughter of a daily wage labourer who lives in Mumbai.

The third case is that of a Class XI student in Tilhar, Shahjehanpur (again the western part of the state). While on her way to college she aproached a police van and complained that a man was harassing her. The cops apprehended him but then let him go.

The incident allegedly played on the girl’s mind and she hanged herself to death on Saturday. In their defence, the police said there was no written complaint against the accused.

Apart from these, four murders have been reported from various districts of the state over the weekend. 

Chief Minister Adityanath reportedly took a serious view of the suicides in Baghpat and in Mathura, where a 20-year-old killed herself after the police failed to find out who killed her parents.

Sunday evening he expressed his displeasure at a video-conference with district police chiefs. He especially pulled up Deputy Inspector-General Sonia Singh of Kanpur.

Only last week the CM met senior bureaucrats and police officers to review law and order and discuss ways of improving the situation. Among the ideas mooted by him was daily foot-patrolling by officers – from station in-charges to additional director-generals.

At the three-hour-long meeting, Adityanath asked police officers to work and day and night to deliver results.

Earlier, after facing flak for his government’s failure to check the rising crime graph, he had sought a year’s time to bring about discernible change and said the politician-criminal nexus would be nipped.

Recently, Governor Ram Naik also expressed dissatisfaction over the crime graph and said the situation needed to be improved.

Edited by Joyjeet Das