The Uttar Pradesh Government on Thursday announced that a single-member inquiry commission under retired Allahabad High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava will probe the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.
The announcement came hours before the Supreme Court was to hear the matter.
The commission will complete its probe in two months, said a notification dated October 6 issued by the State Government.
A judicial probe was on Monday promised by the State Government to the families of the four farmers who who were killed after they refused to cremate the bodies and parked them in glass enclosures at the site of the incident in Tikonia.
Needless escalation: On Lakhimpur Kheri violence
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait had communicated the State Government’s decision to the protesting farmers after he held a meeting with top State officials in a building close to the site of violence.
Four farmers, two BJP workers, a driver of a car they were in and a local scribe were killed in the incident on October 3 and several others were injured. Three cars in the private convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra allegedly ran over a group of protesting farmers.
While farmers alleged one of the victims was also shot dead by Ashish Mishra, the Minister’s son, while he tried to flee the site on foot to escape the mob, the accused denied the charges and the two post-mortem reports of the farmer also did not reflect any bullet injury despite claims by the family.
The exact sequence of how the other four were killed is still unresolved. The BJP Minister and a party worker who lodged the second FIR in the case alleged that the others were lynched to death by the farmers. The first FIR pertains to the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy against Mr. Ashish Mishra and 15-20 others. The second FIR is against unidentified persons.
