Budaun DM, SP suspended

After the initial dilly-dallying, the Akhilesh Yadav government on Saturday finally acted tough and suspended the then acting district magistrate and police chief of Budaun district, which witnessed the brutal gang-rape and murder of two teenaged cousins last month. 

Uday Raj Singh, the acting district magistrate when the incident took place, and SP Atul Saxena were suspended on charges of laxity, according to official sources here. Akhilesh also transferred more than 100 senior IAS and IPS officers. 

The massive shunting comes amid rising crimes against women in different parts of the state. In all, 66 IAS and 42 IPS officers have been transferred by the government.

They include the district magistrates of Aligarh, Agra, Meerut, Unnao, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura, Maharajganj, Raebareli and some other districts, an official spokesman here said.

The move is seen as an attempt to counter the attack over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. 

The government had earlier shunted state chief secretary Javed Usmani and principal secretary (home) A K Gupta, replacing them with Alok Ranjan and Deepak Singhal, respectively.

The suspension of the two senior officials comes 12 days after the reported gang-rape and murder of the cousins. The girls were found hanging from a tree at a mango orchard outside their village, Katra Sadatganj, in the district.

The UP government had recommended a CBI probe into the gang-rape and murder. The police have arrested the five main accused, including three brothers and two cops. Two more suspects, however, remain unidentified and are yet to be traced.

The distraught father of one of the victims said that the incident was more horrifying than the Delhi gang-rape.

He wanted to see all the accused hanging from a tree in the same manner as the two girls were found. The cousins, aged 14 and 15, had gone out to answer nature’s call when they went missing.