Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh: Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, the prime accused in the murder of four farmers and a journalist during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri last year against the now-repealed controversial farm laws, will now face trial for the aforesaid crime. The charges against Ashish Mishra and the other accused were framed by a Lakhimpur Kheri court on Tuesday. It was announced that the trial will begin on December 16. The court’s ruling has come a day after the court rejected Mishra’s discharge petition. The police charge sheet has accused Ashish Mishra of murder.
It is alleged that he was in an SUV that ran over four farmers and a journalist during a protest march of farmers against the three farm laws in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 last year.
Shocking visuals of the incident had shown the car ramming into the protesting farmers at high speed. Angry farmers had managed to chase down the SUV and allegedly lynched the driver and two BJP workers.
The Uttar Pradesh police lodged an FIR against Ashish Mishra on October 6, 2021, accusing him of serious charges. As per the FIR, four of the victims were mowed down by a vehicle allegedly being driven by Ashish Mishra.
The FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 for murder, 304-A for causing death due to reckless driving, 120-B for criminal conspiracy, 147 for rioting, 279 for rash driving, 338 for causing grievous injuries to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life, along with other sections at the Tikunia police station.
Apart from the serious charges, the FIR also mentioned that the whole incident was ‘premeditated’ and that the entire ‘conspiracy was hatched by the BJP minister and his son who committed the act in a display of ‘hooliganism’. It also mentions 15-20 unnamed persons as accused.
The FIR further read, “The incident took place at around 3 pm when Mishra, along with 15-20 others, who were armed with weapons, came to the protest site in Banbirpur in 3 speeding four-wheelers. Monu Mishra, who was sitting on the left side of his Mahindra Thar vehicle, opened gunfire, mowed down the crowd and went ahead. The firing led to the death of farmer Gurvinder Singh, son of Sukhwinder, a resident of Matronia in Nanpara.”
The FIR also alleges that the vehicle of the BJP MP’s son overturned on the side of the road and this caused injuries to several other people present on the side of the road and thereafter Misra opened fire, escaped from his car, and hid in the nearby sugarcane field.
On October 3, several farmers were holding protests against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Lakhimpur Kheri, when four protesting farmers were killed after they were mowed down by an SUV.
The incident sparked a wave of outrage against the ruling BJP and the government was accused of shielding Ajay Mishra, the Union minister of state for home.
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