Amethi: "Akhilesh Yadav's wish has been fulfilled, a Thakur has been encountered," said the father of the second Sultanpur jewellery store robbery case accused who was gunned down in an encounter.
Expressing his anger and grief, Dharm Raj Singh alleged political motives behind his son Anuj Pratap Singh's death. "My son has become a victim of politics. He only had one or two cases against him, yet he was encountered."
Anuj Pratap Singh was a resident of Janapur village in Amethi district and an accused in the August 28 robbery at a jewellery store in Sultanpur. He was gunned down in a pre-dawn encounter with the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police in Unnao district, officials said. Dharm Raj Singh told reporters that he learned of his son's death through the media and had not been officially informed yet.
He also criticised the "selective action" of law enforcement. "There are people with 30 cases against them, yet they remain untouched, but someone with only one or two cases is being encountered. This government can do anything," he alleged. Dharm Raj Singh also claimed that his son had visited their home on May 3 and left on June 4.
Prior to this, the STF on September 5 gunned down another accused, Mangesh Yadav, sparking a political controversy, with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress calling the encounter "fake". Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who had claimed that such encounters were motivated by the accused's "caste", also dubbed the STF as "Special Thakur Force" and "Sar-e-aam Thoko Force".
However, the ruling BJP had said Yadav's jibes were made out of "frustration" while the police denied his allegations. In a post on X after the September 5 encounter, Yadav said, "It seems that the people involved in the Sultanpur robbery had deep ties with the ruling party. That is why before the fake encounter, the main accused was contacted and made to surrender and other accused were shot in the legs only for show, and one of them was killed on the basis of their 'caste'."
"When the main accused surrendered, all the looted goods should also be returned and the government should pay compensation separately," he had said. Fake encounters turn the protector into a predator, he had claimed. "The solution is not fake encounters but real law and order," Yadav further said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged in a post on X on September 7, "In the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 'law and the Constitution' are being violated by those who have the responsibility to enforce them. The death of Mangesh Yadav in an encounter in Sultanpur has once again proved that the BJP does not believe in the rule of law.'
The Congress' state unit chief Ajay Rai had visited Mangesh Yadav's home and demanded that a high court judge investigate the matter.
