Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, has been charged with murder in Lakhimpur Kheri but has yet to be apprehended 24 hours after the First Information Report naming him was filed. Today’s inaction was addressed by a top Uttar Pradesh police officer, who stated that they were “busy.”
“We were first preoccupied with discussions with farmers, then postmortems, and finally the cremations. We follow a due process in every case and we will investigate this case thoroughly,” SN Sabat, the Additional Director General of Police for the Lucknow Zone, told NDTV.
When asked by NDTV if the police’s stance would have been the same if the accused’s high profile had not been involved, Mr Sabat stated, “The police’s attitude is towards the victim, not the accused,” and declined to answer any further questions.
Ashish Mishra is charged with murder and death by negligence in the FIR.
Farmers protesting the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya’s visit on Sunday said the minister’s son was behind the wheel of an SUV that ran down a group, killing four people and wounding many more. Four more people died as a result of the violence it sparked.
An SUV drives into a group of demonstrators from behind, crushing many of them, according to a video circulating on social media that NDTV has not been able to verify its validity.
The disaster was admitted by Ajay Mishra, the junior minister for home, but he claimed the truck crashed, crushing the demonstrators who were throwing stones at the cavalcade.
Farmers have also claimed that one of the four persons died as a result of bullet wounds, and have demanded a second postmortem at a Delhi hospital. Despite the fact that the funerals for the other three were held this afternoon, the body has not been incinerated.
Both Ajay Mishra and his son have denied being present at the scene.
Ashish Mishra told NDTV in an interview. “I wasn’t in the car at the time. A wrestling tournament was being organised at my paternal house in Banwirpur village. I was there from the start of the event till it ended “..
Opposition leaders have questioned the police’s lack of action against him on numerous occasions.
“Those who brutally crush farmers are free to go, while we are held in police prison for 36 hours. “The farming families are crying, and there are celebrations in Lucknow,” Deepender Singh Hooda, a member of the Congress who was arrested with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday, tweeted in Hindi, signing it “From Police Lines Sitapur.” “..
“If you can arrest us, why not the murder-accused minister’s son?” Ms Gandhi Vadra said NDTV after her arrest.
Today, tweeting the viral video of the crash, Ms Gandhi Vadra tweeted, “@narendramodi Sir, your government has kept me in custody for the last 28 hours without any order and FIR. This person who crushed the annadata (farmers) has not been arrested yet. Why?”
(With inputs from NDTV)
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