Uttar Pradesh law and order situation is at best 'in 15-20 years', says Yogi Adityanath in interview with News18

After coming under fire for the Uttar Pradesh government’s handling of the Unnao rape case and the subsequent accident in July involving the survivor and her lawyer, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in an interview with Network18’s group editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi, said that it would be significant to investigate whether the car crash on 29 July was an “incident or accident”. [caption id=“attachment_5613471” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Reuters[/caption] The Unnao rape case, which has drawn attention from political and social spheres, was brought back to the forefront after the accident in which two aunts of the survivor lost their lives. The Supreme Court took up all the cases related to the issue and ordered that they should be transferred to Delhi and be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The apex court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide Rs 25 lakh to the rape survivor as interim compensation. In recent years, the state government has been criticised for “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state. In the interview, Adityanath said that the Unnao rape case “has nothing to do with law and order situation in the state”. Reiterating his claim that the situation has improved in comparison to the governance under former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath said that the “law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh is at its best in the last 15 to 20 years”. He also said that the administration had “questioned and analysed” everything in connection to the Unnao case. Stating that the government had responded to the sensitive case in time, he said, “The matter is still in court. We gave the case to the CBI. We arrested the accused and our government took the matter forward. If there was any carelessness anywhere, we questioned them. Whether it was police or hospital, we analysed everything. The rape victim met with an accident on 28 July. We want to know whether it was an incident or accident. It should come out and we hope the CBI gives a report soon. Everything will come to light soon.” He added, “When some cases become fodder for media trial, we don’t show all the aspects of the case to the society and the truth gets hidden. We need to be careful and I also want to appeal to the media that we should provide news, not our views. When we try to impose our views, it becomes an issue of media trial. It becomes a disaster and people stay unaware of the actual facts and the real criminal takes advantage of this.” With inputs from agencies