Lucknow/New Delhi: As public anger escalated, the CBI on Friday arrested BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused of raping a minor girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, hours after the Allahabad High Court ordered his immediate arrest saying he was influencing the “law and order machinery”.

As the Opposition upped the ante accusing the ruling BJP of shielding perpetrators of heinous crimes against women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that no criminal will be spared and justice will be done to daughters of the nation.

Facing flak over the delay in taking action against his MLA in the nearly year-old rape case, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his government will not deviate from its zero-tolerance policy on crime and that it would firmly deal with criminals, no matter how influential they might be.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who led a midnight march on Thursday in the national capital to protest the rape cases, hit out at the prime minister over his silence on violence against women and children, saying India was waiting for him to “speak up” and asked why accused rapists and murderers were “protected” by the state.

Several BJP leaders hit at the Opposition for “shedding crocodile tears” on the issue of safety of women and raised the issue of other cases of violence against women involving non-BJP leaders including a few over a decade old, in what was seen by some as whataboutery.

Hearing a petition in the case of the alleged rape of the 17-year-old Unnao girl, the Allahabad High Court directed the CBI to arrest Sengar, MLA from the Bangarmau assembly in Unnao district, saying the law and order machinery and officials were directly under his influence.

A bench of Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar gave the direction to the agency after the counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government informed it that Sengar has been detained for interrogation and not arrested yet.