Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Three days after the gory incident n Lakhimpur-Kheri in which four farmers were mowed down and four others were killed in consequential violence, the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday allowed the opposition leaders, including the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to visit the scene of tragedy to meet the family members of the deceased farmers even as the second post-mortem report of Gurvinder Singh also did not mention any bullet injury on the body.
UP’s ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar stated that people have been allowed to visit Lakhimpur Kheri in groups of five. “The Government has no intention of restricting anyone’s movement. Whatever restrictions were imposed, they were just to maintain peace,” he added.
All parties are permitted to visit Lakhimpur; but only five people will be allowed, UP’s Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said. The opposition parties have been clamouring to go to Lakhimpur since Sunday, but the state police did not allow anyone, citing law and order situation. CRPF personnel have now been deployed at the arrival gate of the Lucknow airport in anticipation of the visits.
Priyanka Gandhi, who was held in detention for the last three days in a guest house while trying to reach Lakhimpur, and Rahul Gandhi have been told by the government that they could visit the site of the tragedy along with three others.
Rahul Gandhi and Chief Ministers of Chhattisgah Bhupesh Baghel and Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi have arrived in Lucknow, from where they intend to go to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims of the violence. Before leaving, Gandhi said farmers were being “systematically attacked” in the country and targeted the government for “insulting” them.
The UP DGP Mukul Goel said no one has been arrested in the incident so far. The UP government, however, set up a six-member committee headed by an Additional SP-rank officer and including two DySP and three Inspector-rank officers to “help in the investigation into two cases lodged in connection” with the incident.
The complaint stated: “Due to the firing, Gurvinder Singh died, and other farmers who were on the road were crushed under the car. His cars then lost control and toppled in a ditch as they were speeding, injuring passersby. He then ran away and hid in the sugarcane (field).”
The four protesters who died on Sunday have been identified as Gurvinder Singh (18), Diljeet Singh (35), Nachhattar Singh (55) and Lovepreet Singh (19). While Gurvinder and Diljeet were from Bahraich district’s Nanpara area, Nachhattar and Lovepreet were from Lakhimpur Kheri district. The other three farmers were cremated on Tuesday.
In New Delhi, the union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra, whose son Ashish Mishra is accused of “murder” of the farmers, called on his senior minister Amit Shah at his residence and is believed to have briefed him about Sunday’s incident. Ashish Mishra, who has claimed innocence and denied to had even been present at the scene of the crime, is yet to be arrested.
The farm leaders have given the UP government about a weeks’ time to arrest Ashish Mishra, who was allegedly driving one of the three cars which ploughed through a group of farmer protesters in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.
Locals claiming to be eyewitnesses in Tikonia claimed that they had seen Ashish Mishra sitting in the SUV that mowed down the farmers and alleged that after his car lost balance he ran towards the sugarcane fields and while doing so fired at Gurvinder who had tried to catch him.
In the FIR lodged by the police in Lakhimpur Kheri in the wee hours on October 4 on the complaint of Hari Singh of Bahraich, it was mentioned that the Minister’s son ran towards the sugarcane fields after his car lost balance and that he was firing shots while trying to hide. Hari Singh, the complainant, accused Ashish Mishra of shooting dead Gurvinder. The FIR was lodged under IPC 302, 304a and under criminal conspiracy among other charges. Ashish Mishra was sitting on the left front seat of his Thar jeep, the FIR alleged.
Ashish Mishra has, however, claimed that all allegations against him were false and that he was present in his ancestral village Banwirpur, a couple of kilometres away, to attend the annual wrestling event organised in the memory of his grandfather. “I have all videos and evidence,” he told a television channel claiming innocence.
But even the second autopsy report of Gurvinder also did not mention any bullet injuries, his family said on Wednesday, a day after they had rejected the first autopsy. The body, however, was cremated in his village in Bahraich district, his family said.
Gurvinder’s brother-in-law Raman Singh has confirmed that the second autopsy report also did not reflect any bullet injury.
Gurvinder’s family had demanded a fresh autopsy after they refused to accept the findings of the post-mortem report. The family said the first autopsy report showed Gurvinder had died of internal injuries but it alleged that he was shot dead by Ashish Mishra while trying to escape into the fields following the incident. A fresh panel was formed to conduct the second autopsy.
The second report also has given a similar conclusion that Gurvinder died of internal injuries and bleeding after being hit by the car, said his family. The family said it has received the autopsy report. “It has nothing about the bullet. He has been cremated,” Raman Singh said.
District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said the family members of Gurvinder Singh had raised objections on the post-mortem examination done earlier. “With the permission of the state government, it was done again and videographed as well,” he added.
Apart from the four farmers, a local scribe, two BJP workers and a driver were killed in the incident. Ajay Mishra had alleged they were lynched by the protesters. The autopsy results of the others were not known. Their bodies have been cremated. The family of the scribe, Raman Kashyap, has said he was killed after being run over by the car and they believe that the farmers did not lynch him even though an autopsy report was still awaited.
The BJP, meanwhile, has launched a scathing attack on the Congress leaders accusing them of trying to gain “political mileage” of a “sensitive tragic” incident. Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “The Gandhi family and Rahul Gandhi saw this as an opportunity. Seeing what happened at Lakhimpur Kheri as an opportunity, they thought through this they could save the reputation of their family. Driving political mileage out of a tragic incident is what the Gandhi family is trying to do.”
Criticising Rahul for his “systematic attack on the farmers” remarks before leaving for Uttar Pradesh to meet the families of the deceased, Patra said, “The UPA government sat over the Swaminathan Commission recommendations for eight years and did not implement it and you talk of systemic attack on farmers?”
Meanwhile, the Chandigarh police used water canons on AAP workers and leaders during their protest outside the MLA hostel in Chandigarh over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
