Ashish Mishra, who is the prime accused in the Lakhimpur kheri killings, failed to appear before the district’s Crime Branch office at the designated time of 10 AM on October 8, 2021, said official sources. The absence of Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son has further incensed farmer leaders who claimed Ashish has been absconding since October 7 evening.
Mishra was to appear in Kheri office to answer questions regarding the Sunday incident where he allegedly killed four farmers using his vehicle Mahindra Thar and a gun. However, as of Friday afternoon he was nowhere to be found. Media reports, like those in the Times of India have now aired suspicions that Mishra may have fled to Nepal.
Farmers group Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) had already expressed concern about the lack of arrests for Mishra and other accused like Sumit Jaiswal, Ankit Das, etc. On Thursday, only two people, Luvkush Rana and Ashish Pandey, were arrested by the police while Mishra was only called in for questioning on Friday.
“The Uttar Pradesh government and Ajay Mishra Teni are deploying protective tactics to ensure that Ashish Mishra is roaming free,” said SKM leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal, Dr Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Charuni and others in a joint press release.
They questioned why others such as Jaiswal, who was seen in the Mahindra Thar vehicle, was not arrested by the police. Similarly, they argued that Das was also seen in another vehicle responsible for the massacre.
“The fact that the Police allowed the prime accused to go missing, and the fact that all of this is happening in the immediate family of a Minister for Home Affairs is unbelievable, and reflects the state of law and order in Uttar Pradesh and the country,” said the SKM.
It appealed to the central government to dismiss Ashish’s father as the Minister of State for Home Affairs because “there is no hope for justice” for Lakhimpur Kheri farmers otherwise. It asked the government to “show some semblance of morality.”
Earlier on Thursday night, the SKM condemned Uttar Pradesh Minister Baldev Singh Aulakh for stating that the Sunday incident was “an accident.” Farmers will have a meeting on Friday to plan further course of action and announce the same on October 12.
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