Unnao: Mayawati had said urged Uttar Pradesh Police to take a cue from Telangana Police.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati urged Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel to take cases of crimes against women in the state, even as she attacked the Yogi Adityanath government, claiming that "women are not safe under the current BJP government". The former UP Chief Minister's stinging remarks came after the death of a young woman who was set on fire by her alleged rapists.
"The UP Governor is a woman. She can understand the pain of other women. The UP government doesn't look very concerned. I'd like to request her to fulfill her constitutional obligations to stop these incidents of crimes against women and take time-bound action if the state is not doing so," Mayawati said.
The 23-year-old woman died of her burn injuries at a hospital in Delhi late last night. The woman, who had suffered 90 per cent burns after she was set on fire on Thursday, died of a cardiac arrest at the Safdarjung Hospital, where she had been air-lifted to from Uttar Pradesh on Thursday evening.
"Since the last few years and especially under the current BJP government, women are not safe. In UP, not a single day goes by without a case of crime against women," Ms Mayawati said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the case of the woman being set on fire will be heard in a fast-track court.
Other opposition leaders too blamed the Yogi Adityanath government for not providing security to the Unnao woman. While Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the woman's family in Unnao, the Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav sat on a protest outside the UP assembly.
The woman was on her way to board a train to Rae Bareli to attend a court hearing in the rape case when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire on Thursday, according to the police.
She had filed a complaint in March alleging that she had been raped at gun-point in December 2018. Having been subsequently jailed, the alleged rapist - Shivam Trivedi - was released last week after securing bail, police officer SK Bhagat said. He and his co-accused Shubham Trivedi are among the five attackers.
All five men were arrested from their homes.