Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Union minister’s son remanded in police custody again

It was for the second time that he was remanded in police custody by Lakhimpur Kheri’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Chinta Ram.

Besides, Mishra, CJM Ram also sent three other accused in the case -- Ankit Das, Shekhar Bharti and Latif – to police custody, acceding to the prosecution’s request for their police remand.

The two-day police remand for the four, starting from 5 PM on Friday, will end at the same time on Sunday.

After his arrest on October 9, the son of Union MoS (Home) was first remanded to police custody on October 11 with the remand period starting on October 12 and ending on October 15. After the expiry of his first remand period, he had been sent back to the Lakhimpur Jail under judicial custody. “The Special Investigation Team probing into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence had approached the CJM’s court here again requesting police custody of Ashish Mishra alias Monu and three others -- Ankit Das, Shekhar Bharti and Latif,” Special Prosecution Officer S P Yadav told PTI.

''After hearing the arguments from the prosecution and defence counsel, the court remanded the four in police custody from October 22 to 24 for their custodial interrogation,” he added.

While remanding the four in police custody, the court allowed their lawyers to watch their questioning from a distance without interfering with the investigation.

The court also asked the police to get the accused medically examination at the start and the end of their remand period. The court had earlier on Thursday remanded four other accused – Sumit Jaiswal, Satya Prakash Tripathi alias Satyam, Nandan Singh Bisht and Shishu Pal – in police custody for three days.

Accordingly, the police remand of all seven accused will end on October 24 evening.

In the FIR lodged at the Tikonia police station in Lakhimpur Kheri district following the October 3 violence there in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed, Ashish Mishra figures as the prime accused besides 10-15 other unidentified, unmade persons.

The violence was triggered after an SUV of BJP supporters' convoy had alleged ploughed into a crowd of farmers protesting against the planned visit of Union MoS (Home) Mishra along with UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya there, leaving four people in the crowd dead.

In the ensuing violence, two BJP supporters, an SUV driver and a freelance journalist were killed.

After the registration of the first FIR, a second counter-FIR was lodged at the same police station on the complaint by BJP supporter Sumit Jaiswal, who too was arrested subsequently.

The UP government has set up an SIT, headed by DIG Upendra Kumar Agarwal, to probe into the case. A total of ten people have been arrested in the case so far.