Uttar Pradesh tops the list on crimes against women in 2016

10:20 (IST)BJP leading in KanpurAccording to Times Now the BJP is leading in Kanpur the biggest city in Uttar Pradesh. Counting for the Uttar Pradesh local body polls began today in all the districts amid tight security. The elections coming eight months after the BJP s landslide victory in the UP Assembly polls are being seen as the first popularity test for the Yogi Adityanath government. The counting of ballots has started in all districts on a peaceful note. The results are likely by afternoon State Election Commission said here. The counting was going on for 16 nagar nigam 198 nagar palika parishad and 438 nagar panchayats it said. In 2012 BJP had a mayor in 12 municipal corporations. The Yogi Adityanath government after assuming office constituted two municipal corporations of Ayodhya and Vrindavan-Mathura. The polling percentage of the third phase on November 29 in 26 districts of the state witnessed a voter turnout of 53 per cent. The previous two phases of polling on November 22 and 26 had recorded a turnout of 52.59 and 49.3 respectively taking the average of all the three phases to 52.5 per cent. The overall percentage recorded an improvement from 46.2 per cent in 2012 to 52.5 per cent this time. The election campaign generated a lot of political heat with the ruling BJP leaving nothing to chance. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath criss-crossed the state to woo voters in the name of development while opposition SP BSP and Congress campaigns were comparatively low key. Both SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati did not campaign for their candidates. A journalist working for a Hindi daily was shot dead on Thursday by unidentified bike-borne assailants near the nagar palika market in Billhaur Uttar Pradesh Police said.Navin Gupta was fired with bullets when he came out of a public toilet Superintendent of Police (Rural) Jai Prakash said.Gupta who was in his 30s succumbed to injuries while being rushed to a hospital. He worked for Hindustan as its local reporter from Bilhaur.#UttarPradesh Spot visuals where journalist Naveen Srivastava was shot at by 3-4 bike borne assailants in Kanpur pic.twitter.com/Th1FYv2Kb3 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 30 2017As the news of the killing spread senior police officials rushed to the spot.Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences and directed the state DGP Sulkhan Singh to immediately follow up on the investigations to nab the culprits Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said in Lucknow.The district magistrate and senior superintendent of police rushed to the spot he added. Forensic experts were called to gather evidence that could be helpful in cracking the case.The police were trying to figure out the motive behind the killing. Old enmity was one possible motive that was being looked at officials said.Representational image. AFPThey added that an FIR would be registered once the aggrieved family submitted a written complaint.Meanwhile a manhunt was launched to nab the assailants who fled the scene immediately after the killing. No arrest was however made till Thursday evening.Local mediapersons and office bearers of journalists unions held an emergency meeting and expressed serious concern over the scribe s killing and the law and order situation.This is the second killing of a journalist in the state in just over a month. In October RSS activist and Dainik Jagran stringer Rajesh Mishra was shot dead in the state s Ghazipur district.Earlier Uttar Pradesh-based journalist Jagendra Singh was killed in June 2015 in Shahjahanpur district allegedly for his exposes on illegal sand mining and other such activities.He was allegedly set on fire. Singh had worked for Hindi language media for 15 years.In October 2015 45-year-old journalist Hemant Yadav was shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunmen in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. He worked with a local news channel.In another incident a part-time reporter of a Hindi daily in Bareilly district Sanjay Pathak was killed allegedly by two persons in August 2015.Pathak 42 was hit several times on the head with some heavy object and died of excessive bleeding.Another journalist was attacked allegedly by the mining mafia in Chitrakoot district in 2015 while in yet another shocking incident a journalist was dragged on the road by goons after tying him to a motor bike in Pilibhit district the same year.With inputs from agencies KANPUR: A 38-year-old journalist - Naveen Gupta working with a national Hindi daily was shot dead in Billhaur area of the district on Thursday evening. Police have registered a case of murder against unidentified men and rounded up nearly half-a-dozen suspects for an early breakthrough superintendent of police (rural) GP Singh told TOI. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the state DGP to follow up the investigation into the murder. The incident occurred at a market near Billhaur Nagar Palika around 5:30 pm when three persons on a two-wheeler arrived at the family shop where Naveen was sitting. It was after he came out of the shop the assailants whipped out firearms and sprayed bullets on him a police official at Billhaur Kotwali police station said. The trio fled the spot on their motorcycle soon after committing the crime he said. Gupta was rushed to a nearby hospital by family members and local shopkeepers who reached the spot after hearing gunshot sound. He was declared brought dead by doctors at the hospital the police official said. Senior police officials including SSP Akhilesh Kumar Meena besides a forensic team experts reached the site and launched an investigation in this regard. Gupta was a social person and he used to help people in his capacity said local sources further. On the motive behind the crime SP (rural) GP Singh said police is trying to speak to his family members in this regard. Five bullets each hit Naveen in his vital body parts. We have rounded up few persons and investigation is on SP (rural) GP Singh said without elaborating. Lucknow: Bizarre news is not something new to Uttar Pradesh. On Monday the district jail in Orai was witness to a unique sight as eight donkeys incarcerated for the last four days in the prison were let off after a recommendation from a local BJP leader.These donkeys had been sent behind the bars by jail superintendent Sita Ram Sharma who lost his cool on the four-legged animals after they chewed up costly plants brought by the prison authorities for plantation inside the jail premises.Representational image. ReutersThe owner of the donkeys apparently made many requests to prison authorities to let the donkeys go but to no avail.He then did what most commoners do in Uttar Pradesh petition the politician.Here he made a fervent appeal to a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shakti Gahoi who then went to the jailer and asked him to let the donkeys go.With a ruling party leader making the request the prison official immediately signed the release orders .Locals apparently were amused to the hilt to see donkeys walk out of the prison gates rather than men which is usually a common sight.But then this is Uttar Pradesh and anything and everything is possible here! Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be closely watched as results of the Uttar Pradesh civic polls are declared on December 1. While elections to 16 nagar nigams are being held through EVMs ballot papers are being used for simultaneous polls to 198 nagar palika parishads and 439 nagar panchayats. Second phase of the three-phase polls concluded on Sunday with some incidents of EVM malfunctioning being reported. Our apprehension is that wherever elections are being held through EVMs (in nagar nigams) BJP will win while wherever elections are being held by paper ballots BJP will lose badly. The December 1 results will expose EVMs Samajwadi Party spokesperson and a close Akhilesh Yadav aide Sunil Singh Yadav told ET. If the BJP is winning in the cities on EVMs in nagar nigams it should also win on the ballot papers. If there is a BJP wave it should be everywhere. If the BJP wins by as big a margin on ballot papers as on EVMs we will admit your popularity. But I m sure the December 1 results will trigger a big debate in the country over EVMs Yadav said. While 1.53 crore people will vote in the nagar nigam polls 1.23 crore people will vote for 198 nagar palika parishad polls and 57 lakh people will vote in 439 nagar panchayat elections. The BJP scoffed at these allegations saying the Samajwadi Party was already conceding defeat in the 16 nagar nigams. The Opposition is disillusioned and dispirited and hence putting forward such unfounded allegations on EVMs. The SP and the Congress have lost their connection with the people - especially after the public supported the government on GST and demonetisation. We are confident of winning all three elections UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi told ET. He however added that nagar panchayat polls are elections at very low level and in many such contests parties had not even floated candidates. It would not be proper to draw a conclusion from just the nagar panchayat elections. In the Amethi nagar panchayat in Rahul Gandhi s constituency the Congress has not even put up a candidate. Nagar nigam polls are being fought by all parties on their symbols - why is the Opposition scared of those results already? Tripathi asked. State election commissioner in UP SK Agarwal conceded that EVMs being used in nagar nigam polls are M1 type -manufactured till 2006 -- and the Election Commission of India is in the process of phasing them out when they complete their 15-year lifecycle. He however cited just four cases of EVM malfunctioning in the first phase of polls. The M2 model of EVMs produced after 2006 and up to 2012 have dynamic coding of key codes thereby enabling transfer of the key - press message from Ballot Unit to Control Unit in an encrypted form as an additional security feature. EC earlier threw an open challenge to test EVMs including M1 type to prove they are non-hackable. But no political party participated in the challenge. Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had questioned EVMs after the 2017 assembly election loss.