Lakhimpur Kheri violence: FIR clearly nails Union minister's son

Congress State President Madan Mohan Jha with supporters burn an effigy during a protest over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident Patna. Pic/PTI

The FIR lodged against Ashish Mishra Monu, the son of Union Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra 'Teni', in connection with the recent violent incident in Lakhimpur Kheri, in which a total of 8 people were killed, accuses the minister's son of serious charges. As per the FIR, four of the victims were mowed down by a vehicle allegedly being driven by Ashish Mishra.

The FIR has been filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 for murder, 304-A for causing death due to reckless driving, 120-B for criminal conspiracy, 147 for rioting, 279 for rash driving, 338 for causing grievous injuries to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life, along with other sections at the Tikunia police station. The FIR states that the whole incident was 'premeditated' and that the entire 'conspiracy was hatched by the BJP minister and his son', who committed the act in a display of 'hooliganism'. The FIR also mentions 15-20 unnamed persons as accused.

The FIR further read, "The incident took place at around 3 pm when Mishra, along with 15-20 others, who were armed with weapons, came to the protest site in Banbirpur in 3 speeding four-wheelers. Monu Mishra, who was sitting on the left side of his Mahindra Thar vehicle, opened gunfire, mowed down the crowd and went ahead. The firing led to the death of farmer Gurvinder Singh, son of Sukhwinder, a resident of Matronia in Nanpara." The FIR also alleges that the vehicle of the BJP MP's son overturned on the side of the road and this caused injuries to several other people present on the side of the road and thereafter Mishra opened fire, escaped from his car, and hid in the nearby sugarcane field.

The FIR also states that a video has already gone viral on social media, in which the BJP minister could be allegedly seen warning protesters who were opposing the Centre's three farm laws. In the video, he allegedly asked the protesters to mend their ways. On October 3, several farmers were holding protests against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Lakhimpur Kheri, when four protesting farmers were killed after they were mowed down by an SUV. Allegedly, the SUV was part of the convoy of Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni.

According to legal experts, the FIR has been lodged under the stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code, demanding immediate arrest of the accused. The sections levelled against Ashish Mishra are non-bailable. The Lakhimpur police, however, have claimed that they were 'busy' with the cremations of the bodies of the farmers due to which they did not find time for investigation.

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