Lucknow, May 5 (IANS): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has reiterated that Uttar Pradesh has turned into a state which tops in "ease of committing crime and not business".

In a statement on Thursday, he again attacked the ruling BJP over what he described as a spurt in cases of sensational crime.

Listing a number of incidents of crime that have been taking place, the SP president said: "Criminals are having a free run in the state while the police are looking the other way."

The SP president has now started to reach out to crime survivors and families of victims.

He met the victim and her family in Lalitpur on Wednesday evening and sought protection for the family.

"Police are turning a blind eye to heart wrenching appeals of the crime victims and the worse is that the men in khaki are now being accused of criminally exploiting them," he said, citing the Lalitpur rape case in which a Dalit minor was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped and when she went to the police station to lodge an FIR, she was sexually assaulted by the station in charge.

"In its second run of the Yogi Adityanath government, the crime situation is twice as bad as it was during the party's first stint in power and needs urgent attention," he said.

Taking a dig at the state government for using bulldozers to raze illegal property of criminals and crime accused, Akhilesh said such actions were not being initiated against those individuals who are close to the ruling BJP and as a result of which-- despite the use of bulldozers-- the UP police has failed to reign in crime and criminals.