Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday lashed out at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, saying the former had dialled his Maharashtra counterpart to express concern over the lynching of two saints in Palghar last week.
The UP CM's tweet came a day after Raut wrote on Twitter about Uddhav Thackeray and Adityanath's telephonic conversation about the murder of two saints in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district. Day's before Thackeray's call, Adityanath had made a similar phone call to him over the lynching of two sadhus and their driver in Palghar.
In his tweet, Raut also wrote: "When such an inhumane tragedy takes place, one must avoid politicising and bring the culprits to justice."
Advertisement
Strongly reacting to it, Adityanath asked Raut if expressing concern over the "barbaric murder" of saints amounted to politicising the deaths.
He added that he called up Uddhav Thackeray because the killed saints belonged to the Nirmohi Akhadha group.
The UP CM office also tweeted that under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the rule of law reigned supreme, adding the criminals were dealt with strictly.
"Take care of Maharashtra. Don't worry about Uttar Pradesh," the tweet further read.
Two priests -- Jagdish (55) and Sher Singh (45) -- were found murdered at a temple in Bulandshahr district on Tuesday morning, allegedly killed by local youth.
Advertisement
The two of them were allegedly hit with a lathi at Paguana village’s Shiva temple in Anupshahr police station area, police said. The alleged killer was arrested.
Opposition leaders targeted the BJP over the crime, with the Congress and the Shiv Sena referring to Adityanth's reaction after the lynching of two sadhus and their driver in Maharashtra’s Palghar recently.
According to Uttar Pradesh Police, Murari, also known as Raju, was accused by the sadhus two days ago of stealing a pair of tongs used by them.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said there should be a thorough probe into the killing of the sadhus in Bulandshahr and nobody should politicise such incidents.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also reminded the Bharatiya Janata Party about Palghar.
"The BJP was trying to give a political twist to the killing of two priests in Palghar. We demand that there should be no politics on the killing of priests in Bulandshahr," he said.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav called the Bulandshahr murders “extremely condemnable and tragic”.
“Instead of politicising such murders, there is a need to look into the criminal motive or the root cause of such violent mentality,” he tweeted.
