Akhilesh Yadav criticised the Uttar Pradesh government over law and order situation

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the ruling BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of saving criminals and not ensuring a proper law and order situation in the state.

"There is no law and order in Uttar Pradesh. I have earlier said that the state has become hatya pradesh. The criminals have been given a free hand from the government. There is no prosecution against the culprits. How will justice be ensured when the government itself is saving the criminals?" Mr Yadav said when asked to comment on the alleged Pushpendra Yadav encounter case.

Pushpendra was shot dead in the alleged encounter in Jhansi on October 5. He was accused of undertaking illegal sand mining in the area, according to the police.

Mr Yadav said the police are yet to give a post-mortem report to the family of the man who was killed.

"The government is more interested in how to save the culprits. Police should tell at what time the encounter took place. Why the post-mortem report has not been shown to the family? The government should answer this," Mr Yadav said.

On Thursday, Mr Yadav had alleged that Pushpendra's encounter was fake.

"The whole Bundelkhand knows this was a fake encounter. In the name of an encounter, a youth was brutally killed. The police say he was running away after stealing a car. There must be some proof of that, in every police station. There are CCTV cameras installed. Let the police show his footage," he had said at a press conference in Jhansi.

The police denied the allegations. In a tweet, the Jhansi Police released a record of crimes attributed to Pushpendra. The police said his truck was fined twice in 2018 for illegal mining with the latest chalan as recent as September 29.