LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday hinted that there was a possibility of the culprits of the Sonbhadra shooting having some links with the opposition Samajwadi Party.
Adityanath also accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears over the incident, which, he claimed, was the result of its ‘sins’ and ‘attempts’ to usurp rights of tribals during its rule.
The CM said that the accused is a party worker of the Samajwadi Party. “He is in active role in the Samajwadi Party. Apart from this, his brother is a BSP leader. All of them have been misusing the power,” he said, adding that land mafia will be punished under the stringent National Security Act. “The SP worker had also tried to capture the land of the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes. “Other cases have also come to notice and all cases are being investigated.”
The CM visited Umbha village and met the victims, a day after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met and spoke with families, which were victims of the horrific shooting.
During his meeting with the villagers, Adityanath promised the villagers all help and assured them of bearing expenses of treatment of those injured in the shooting. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, DGP O P Singh and chief secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey accompanied the CM.
While distributing cheques to the victims the CM announced that the amount of financial relief would be raised to Rs 18.5 lakh from Rs 5 lakh to the kin of deceased and those injured would be given Rs 2.5 lakh against the Rs 50,000 compensation announced earlier.
Last Wednesday, 10 people from Gond tribe were killed in a shoot-out by hundreds of henchmen of village head Yagya Dutt over a land dispute. Adityanath met each and every family, and assured them all help. Later, he told reporters that not only Umbha but in other villages scores of similar disputes over land were pending. “I have taken note of all such other disputes and they will be settled at the earliest.”