BJP on Monday attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for their "silence" on the murder of a woman, who had accused a Samajwadi Party MLA of rape.
BJP has claimed that the UP government led by Yadav was working to save the accused lawmaker.
"The murder of a woman after she accused the MLA of raping her is shameful. What is more shameful is the silence of Akhilesh Yadav and his ally Rahul Gandhi. The state government has been trying to save the accused," he told reporters.
A case of alleged murder was lodged against Samajwadi Party MLA Arun Verma on Monday. It was lodged by the father of a 22-year-old woman, who had accused the SP MLA of gangraping her along with seven others in 2013, and was later found murdered near her house in Sultanpur, police said on Monday.
The body of the woman, who was missing since Saturday, was found on Sunday near a primary school in Jaisinghpur, they said. An FIR has been registered in this regard.
Police said the injury mark around her neck suggested that she was strangled to death. The body has been sent for postmortem to ascertain the cause of death.
The woman had alleged that the local MLA, who is also the SP's Sultanpur candidate for the 27 February polls, gang raped her, along with others in September 2013.
At one stage, the woman had withdrawn her allegation and some local youths were chargesheeted in the police investigation.
In February 2014, Verma's name was removed from the case.
In May 2016, the Allahabad High Court had sought a probe into the crime and ordered compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the victim.
A Home Department official said the fact that she asked for security and it was downsized was a serious matter.
The victim's family said she went missing after stepping out of the house to lighten herself on Sunday night. Her body was found behind a toilet.
The trial in the case is still on and police are probing the matter and going through the call records of the woman.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI, IANS and DNA.)