Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday hit out at CM Yogi Adityanath for the law and order situation in the state following the murder of dreaded gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari, alias 'Jeeva' in Lucknow court premises. Speaking at a press conference, the Samajwadi Party supremo said, "We feel like the government has given a free hand to such criminals."

  A close aide of gangster-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, Jeeva was shot dead in Lucknow court premises on Wednesday by an assistant impostering as a lawyer. 


He alleged that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh has deteriorated. 


Reading out several crime news from Uttar Pradesh during the press conference, the SP supremo claimed that women were the most unsafe in Lucknow.  






Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Wednesday reacted to the killing of dreaded gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari, alias 'Jeeva', saying anyone who commits murder won't be spared.  "The Uttar Pradesh Police will catch them and be punished according to the law," he said. 


Believed to be a close aide of gangster-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, Jeeva was shot dead in Lucknow court premises on Wednesday. He hailed from Muzaffarnagar in north-western Uttar Pradesh and was arrested in 2006 in connection with the murders of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and former UP minister Brahmadutt Dwivedi.


ALSO READ: Close Aide Of Mukhtar Ansari Gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari 'Jeeva' Shot Dead On Lucknow Court Premises


Jeeva and former Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Singh had been handed life sentences for the murder of Dwivedi. Jeeva was also connected to four other murders.


Ansari was sentenced to life imprisonment by an MP-MLA court of Varanasi for the murder of Congress leader Ajay Rai's brother Awadhesh Rai in the year 1991.


The incident comes close to the heels of the double murder of gangsters Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf who were shot dead at point-blank range by assailants under police escort in Prayagraj.