New Delhi:
A second charge has been filed in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, in which an SUV – allegedly driven by the son of a Union minister – crashed into a crowd of protesters last year. While the first charges, Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, named more than four farmers and a journalist who were hit by a car, the second concerns the violence that followed, in which two BJP workers and the driver of the SUV were beaten to death. .
Seven farmers were arrested by the police during their investigation into this case, but it is not clear in what year they were all charged with murder.
The second police case was filed following a complaint by one Sumit Jaiswal, a local BJP employee, against unnamed farmers, who accused them of inciting violence.
Cell phone videos that were widely circulated showed Sumit Jaiswal running away from one of the SUVs that hit the farmers. He was later arrested as a co-defendant in the case named Ashish Mishra, the son of Deputy Home Secretary Ajay Mishra.
Ashish Mishra and 12 others have been arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy.
Earlier this month, the Special Investigation Team investigating the Lakhimpur Kheri incident filed a 5,000-page suit against 14 people in a local court, saying Ashish Mishra was on the scene during the incident.
Contrary to what the minister and his son claimed, Ashish Mishra was in one of the SUVs involved in the attack on protesting farmers and the journalist.
The Special Investigation Team has told the court that the murder of the farmers and the journalist was a “planned conspiracy” with intent to commit murder and not a case of negligent death.
With the minister yet to resign, Congress has accused the BJP-led government of protecting him and his son.
Eight people – including four farmers and a journalist – were killed during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on Oct. 3. A high-speed SUV – reportedly driven by Ashish Mishra – had rammed the protesters from behind. Shortly afterwards, violence broke out, killing three others, two of them BJP employees.
