Kanpur shootout: Catch the criminals alive to expose nexus with govt., says Akhilesh Yadav

The government, scared of getting unmasked, is engaging in drama of showing minor encounters in a hurried manner instead of arresting the main criminal, tweets the Samajwadi Party president

Police and forensic team members investigate the encounter site, where 8 police personnel were killed after being fired upon by criminals, in Kanpur on July 3, 2020.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of covering up its alleged nexus with the criminals involved in the Kanpur shootout in which eight policemen were shot dead by a group of assailants .

“The government, scared of getting unmasked, is engaging in drama of showing minor encounters in a hurried manner instead of arresting the main criminal,” Mr. Yadav tweeted in Hindi.

This would further dent the morale of the police and aggravate their anger, he added.

In an earlier tweet, Mr. Yadav had demanded that the accused be caught alive in order to “expose” the State government’s alleged nexus with the criminals.

“In this most shameful incident in the criminal history of UP, dutiful police personnel had to pay the price of the collusion between the ‘sattadhari’ and ‘apradhi’ [those in power and criminals],” Mr. Yadav said.