LAKHIMPUR KHERI: Hours after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up and a judicial inquiry panel appointed, the first arrests -- two men, part of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni’s convoy that allegedly ran over and killed four farmers -- were made in Sunday’s Lakhimpur Kheri killings case. The minister’s son, Ashish Mishra, has been summoned by the SIT.
“Among the unnamed accused in the (farmers’) FIR, six have been identified so far. Three of them had died on the spot. Two others — Lav Kush from Banbirpur and Ashish Pandey from Taranagar — were arrested on Thursday,” a police statement said. ADG (Lucknow zone) SN Sabat told TOI, “They will be produced in court.”
Earlier in the day, IG (Lucknow) Laxmi Singh said, “They revealed the names of three persons involved in the incident. We cannot arrest them because they are dead. We have gathered important leads from the two persons we are questioning.”
On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court had asked the UP government to file a report on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence by Friday. A single-member judicial inquiry panel of retired high court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was announced on Thursday. It will submit a report in two months.
The SIT initially announced, meanwhile, had six members — Kheri additional SP Arun Kumar Singh, who was at Banbirpur village that day, two deputy SPs and three inspector-rank officers. In the evening, a new setup was announced — DIG Upendra Agarwal will oversee the probe, with PAC commandant Sunil Kumar Singh as a senior member and ASP Singh as a member, along with the others. A technical consultant is also part of the team.
DGP Mukul Goel told TOI, “A nine-member committee headed by a DIG-rank officer has been formed to ensure an impartial and transparent probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident … I sincerely hope that the committee will ensure probity and help expedite the probe as soon as possible.” The reason, IG Singh told TOI, is that the “ambit of the case has turned vast,” adding, “An ASP-rank officer posted in the district was supervising the probe but now this monitoring committee will oversee the probe.”
Meanwhile, a notice, asking Ashish to be present at the Kheri crime branch office at 10am on Friday, was pasted outside his house. “Ashish Mishra has been summoned for questioning,” IG Singh said. A media report quoting a relative of the minister had said Ashish had left Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday. When asked, ADG Sabat said, “The investigation team is looking into it.”
Significantly, police also said empty cartridges had been found during a sweep at the site of the killings in Banbirpur. “On Wednesday, the site of the incident was examined by the forensic team. Two empty .315 cartridges were found. On Thursday, metal detectors were used at the spot again,” a police statement said.
While the families of farmer Gurwinder Singh and journalist Raman Kashyap, killed in Sunday’s violence, said the bodies had bullet holes, the autopsy report did not mention any gunshot wounds. Eyewitnesses TOI spoke to -- and reported by this newspaper -- had said “over 10 shots” were fired, that those in the convoy were the ones who fired and that the sound of bullets went off for hours when the two cars were burnt down, hinting that cartridges inside the vehicles may have combusted.
(With inputs from Lucknow)
