Accused not yet arrested as they are associated with BJP: Akhilesh on Lakhimpur incident

By PTI

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra’s son has not yet been arrested in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case even though evidence pointed to his role in the incident.

“As fingers are raised towards MoS (Ajay Mishra) in the BJP government, the accused in Lakhimpur case are not yet sent to jail,” Yadav, who is visiting Lakhimpur to meet the aggrieved families, told reporters here outside his residence.

“Those named in the FIR should go to jail. Government should take immediate action and the matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the High Court. There are videos clips, statements of eyewitnesses, the statement (of minister) in which he is threatening. As he (accused Ashish Mishra) is the son of the MoS, action has note been taken yet,” he said.

“Do you think farmers can get justice till he (father of accused) is MoS?” he asked.

The UP government has constituted a one-member commission headed by retired judge of Allahabad High Court Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava to probe the incident, a senior Home Department official said on Thursday.

When asked about the BJP’s allegation that the opposition is doing politics on the matter, he said, “The BJP is doing politics and it is a clever party. We want to know what was done in the Kanpur Manish Gupta case. Why are policemen still absconding. Why an absconding IPS officer is not arrested?” Kanpur-based businessman Manish Gupta had died under suspicious circumstances inside a hotel in Gorakhpur on Monday and six policemen were booked on charges of murder.

SP chief Yadav had tried to visit Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday but was stopped outside his home by the police.

On October 3, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Of the eight killed, four were farmers, who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area.

The other four were two BJP workers, a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra and a journalist working for a private television channel.