Ashish Mishra Arrested, BJP MP Cautions against Turning Lakhimpur Incident into “Hindu-Sikh Battle,”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 10: Six days after the gory incident of the four farmers and a journalist being mowed down by speeding cars at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, the principal accused Ashish Mishra, the son of the union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra, was arrested on Saturday night after being questioned for over 12 hours. The police said he had been giving “evasive answers” and not cooperating in the investigation.
A ruling party member of Parliament, Varun Gandhi, who has recently fallen from grace from the party leadership after extending support to the farmers’ cause, cautioned the people about “attempts being made” to turn the Lakhimpur incident into a Hindu-Sikh battle to take the spotlight away from the farmers’ agitation.
Ashish was produced before a court at Lakhimpur late on Saturday night, which sent him to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the October 3 violence. A medical team examined Ashish Mishra in the crime branch office, after which he was taken for production before a judicial magistrate, who sent him to custody, senior prosecution officer SP Yadav said.
He said an application for police remand of Ashish Mishra was submitted to the judicial magistrate who fixed it for hearing at 11 a.m. on October 11. Ashish Mishra was named in an FIR following allegations that he was in one of the vehicles that mowed down four farmers protesting over UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit on October 3.
Farmer leaders and opposition parties had been demanding Ashish Mishra’s arrest but the Minister and his son had denied the allegations claiming that none of them were present at the spot at the time of the incident though the union minister had admitted that one of the three vehicles involved in the incident was owned by his family. Two BJP workers and their driver were allegedly lynched by angry farmers subsequent to the mowing down of the farmers in the incident. Local journalist Raman Kashyap also died in the violence, which has triggered a political storm and put the BJP government on the back foot in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
Ashish Mishra was arrested six days after he was named in the FIR on the incident though the nature of charges, cold blooded murder, merited his immediate arrest raising questions whether the BJP governments in the state and the centre providing him political protections.
According to top sources in the Uttar Pradesh Police, the minister’s son was not able explain several points about his whereabouts during the incident last Sunday. Witnesses have said he was missing from the event he said he was at between 2 and 4 pm, his phone location showed him closer to the crime scene, and the driver of the SUV that rammed the farmers did not appear to match the description made by him.
The senior UP Police officer, who waited three hours for Ashish Mishra to show up on Friday, questioned him till late into the night after he was brought in through a backdoor, helping him avoid the media glare. In another questionable move, the UP cops had issued notice to Ashish Mishra under a section of law which concerns attendance of witnesses – not the accused.
The arrest came a day after the Supreme Court reminded the Uttar Pradesh government that the law must take its own course against “whoever is involved” amid nationwide outrage over the incident and mounting pressure from farmer groups.
“What is the message that you are sending? Even in normal circumstances… will the police not go immediately and arrest the accused? Things have not proceeded the way they should have. It appears to be only words and not actions,” Chief Justice NV Ramana said in a sharp rebuke.
Ashish Mishra was named in an FIR filed by the farmers who said he drove into a gathering of slogan-shouting demonstrators amid a peaceful black flag protest last Sunday. Eight people, including four farmers and four from the convoy, died in the incident and the violence that it triggered. The police said Ashish produced around 150 images to show that he was not in the car that crushed the farmers.
Two people – Luv Kush and Ashish Pandey – were arrested on Thursday as the case reached the Supreme Court. They were reportedly in the same vehicle that ran over a journalist and farmers, the police said.
The police sources, however, said Ashish was arrested because he was not able to answer several questions about his whereabouts during the violence. While Ashish Mishra had said he was at a wrestling event around 4-5 km from the scene of the violence on Sunday, the statements of police personnel posted at the event and the people there reveal that the minister’s son was missing between 2 and 4 pm. Ashish Mishra’s mobile tower location at the time also shows his location in and around the crime scene, they said. Mishra, however, has told the police that he was in his rice mill at the time which is closer to the crime scene under the same tower.
His alibi was further strained because of the First Information Report or FIR registered by Mishra’s aides against the farmers for allegedly killing three of their men including his driver Hari Om. Even though the FIR said Hari Om was driving the Mahindra Thar which ran over the farmers, the video analysed by the police shows that a man wearing a white shirt or kurta is driving the Thar; Hari Om was found wearing a yellow kurta when his body was brought to the hospital. Based on these three points of contention and Mishra not being forthcoming with the facts, he was arrested, the sources said. The police also said he had been “evasive” in his responses and not cooperating.
Meanwhile, the Congress general secretary and in-charge of UP, Piranha Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP government over the Lakhimpur incident accusing it “shielding” the “culprits” because they belonged to the ruling party. She also wondered that the prime minister Narenda Modi never bothered to listen to the grievances of the farmers and even after the gruesome Lakhimpur killing, Modi though was in Lucknow to attend some official functions did not even bothered to meet the family of the farmer victims.
“Last week, the son of Union MoS (Home) mowed down six farmers with his vehicle. Families of all the victims said they want justice but all of you have seen that the government is shielding the minister and his son. Have you seen in any country that a person who mowed down six people is being ‘invited’ by the police to talk to them?” Gandhi said while addressing the ‘Kisan Nyay’ rally in Varanasi.
She added, “The CM is shielding the minister from a public forum. The Prime Minister came to Lucknow to see the performance of the “Uttam Pradesh” and Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav but couldn’t go to Lakhimpur Kheri to share the grief of the victim families.
Seeking to further step up the heat on Modi over the farmers issue, Priyanka said the Centre did not pay any heed to their protests and never tried to listen earnestly to their demands.
“Farmers are protesting for over 300 days, during which time more than 600 of them have died. They’re protesting because they know that their income, land and crops will go to the billionaire friends of this government. PM Modi can tour the whole world but can’t meet farmers to address their issues,” she said.
“PM Modi have called the protesting farmers ‘andolanjivi’ and terrorists. Yogi-ji called them hooligans and even tried to threaten them. The same minister (Ajay Mishra) had said he would make the protesting farmers fall in line within two minutes,” she said.
Earlier this week, Priyanka had traded barbs with the UP CM over her act of sweeping the guest house in Sitapur where she was detained. Adityanath, in a TV interview, had said on Friday that the public has left her worthy of only cleaning floors.
Priyanka then reached a Valmiki temple in a Dalit colony in Lakhimpur and picked up a broom again the clean its floors turning the heat on the UP CM. She said Adityanath’s remark was not against her but crores of women, Dalits and safai karamcharis, who proudly keep the houses and cities clean.
Priyanka said the CM has humiliated those engaged in cleaning and sanitation work. She told people in Luv Kush Nagar: “He has not humiliated me by saying so, he has humiliated you all as crores of Dalit brothers and sisters are safai karamcharis and they do this work.”
Addressing the people, she said, “Just ask yourself: have the promises that were made to you been fulfilled? Has development come to your doorstep? If not, you can stand with me and say it is the time to bring change now.”
Continuing his tirade against his own party leaders on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the BJP MP from Pilibhit in UP, Varun Gandhi on Sunday said “attempts are being made” to turn the Lakhimpur incident into a “Hindu and Sikh battle.” Calling it “immoral” and “dangerous,” Gandhi asked parties to “not put petty political gains above national unity.”
“An attempt to turn Lakhimpur Kheri into a Hindu vs Sikh battle is being made. Not only is this an immoral & false narrative. It is dangerous to create these fault lines & reopen wounds that have taken a generation to heal. We must not put petty political gains above national unity,” Varun said.
Varun Gandhi said the “struggle for justice in Lakhimpur is about the cruel massacre in the face of an arrogant local power elite. It has no religious connotations. “To use the word Khalistani liberally to describe the protesting farmers was not only an insult to the generations of these proud sons, but it is also extremely dangerous for our national unity if this provokes the wrong kind of reaction,” he added.
Reacting to some BJP leaders linking the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri to “Khalistanis” Varun Gandhi had cautioned that using “pejorative and demeaning” language against the “ struggling farmers” is “unfair and cruel” and that it could lead to “further reaction among the people who at the moment are very peaceful. This is extremely unfortunate and it is also dangerous for the country. Because instead of understanding what the struggling farmers are saying we cannot start using pejorative language for them,” he said.
Earlier also Varun had come out in support of the farmers who have been protesting against the contentious farm laws. He wrote to Yogi Adityanath seeking relief measures for the distressed and agitating farmers.
