New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh police on Monday got three-day remand of Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the violence on October 3.
“Police had demanded a 14-day remand of Ashish. They have got three-day remand from October 12 to 15,” senior prosecution officer S.P. Yadav told reporters.
The remand will end on the morning of October 15.
The police remand was granted by chief judicial magistrate Chintaram, with the condition that Ashish Mishra “will not be harassed” and his lawyer will remain present during interrogation, Yadav said.
Earlier, a court had sent Ashish Mishra to 14-day judicial custody.
After Mishra’s arrest on Saturday, the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit seemingly began to distance itself from him.
As The Wire‘s Ismat Ara had reported, Mishra or “Monu bhaiya”, as he is known, had been campaigning as a probable candidate for the state’s assembly election next year.
“Yuvaon ki pukaar, Monu bhaiya abki baar (The youth has declared, this time Monu bhaiya will be elected),” one hoarding in Lakhimpur Kheri’s Nighasan says, echoing the “Abki baar Modi sarkar (This time, Modi’s government)” slogan of the BJP during the 2014 general elections.
However, with the BJP facing flak over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the party’s UP chief Swatantra Dev Singh on Sunday urged party workers to win people’s confidence with their conduct, adding, “We are not in politics to loot or crush someone under a Fortuner [a popular SUV car]”.
His remarks came after Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday in connection with mowing down four farmers by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.
These comments departed significantly from the earlier party line, repeated by Union minister Ajay Mishra himself, that his son was not present at the spot where the farmers were mowed down.
Addressing a meeting of UP BJP’s minority morcha, Singh said, “We have not come in politics to loot (people), nor have we come to crush someone under a Fortuner.”
“You will get votes by your behaviour. If 10 people of your locality are praising you, my heart swells (with pride). Your behaviour should be such that people do not turn away their faces after seeing you, he asserted.
The BJP leader’s comments came hours after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of trying to save a Union minister’s son in the case and said except BJP leaders and their “billionaire friends”, nobody was safe in the country.
Four farmers were mowed down by the SUV when a group agitating against the Union government’s three farm laws was demonstrating against the visit of UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Two BJP workers and a driver were allegedly beaten to death by the angry protesters. A local journalist was also killed in the violence. His family’s complaint, accessed by The Wire, says he was ‘shot at’ because he filmed the VIP convoy that killed the farmers.
According to News 18, officials close to the investigation say that it is crucial to determine where Ashish Mishra was for an hour between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm, when the farmers were mown down. Police “now believe he was at the incident spot”, according to the report.
While the spot where the farmers were killed is about 4-5 km away from Ashish’s village, where he claims to have been present all day for a wrestling contest, sources ‘close to the investigation’, however, told News 18 that Ashish Mishra left the venue around 2 pm or so in his Thar vehicle.
The incident has triggered a political storm and put the BJP government on the back foot in the poll-bound state.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the agitation against the three farm laws, had alleged that the violence was part of a “pre-planned conspiracy” and demanded the arrest of the minister and his son.
(With PTI inputs)
