Minister, father of Lakhimpur murder accused, calls journalists ‘thieves’

Union Minister Ajay Mishra abused journalists in Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday, calling them thieves, and lunging at one of them when they questioned him on the deadly October 3 violence in which his son is among the accused.

Mishra is under increasing pressure to quit over his jailed son, who is accused of running over farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri.

A memorandum submitted by reporters accused the minister of state for home affairs of scuffling with them and snatching a reporter’s mobile phone.

Also read: Lakhimpur violence: Protests continue with bodies of slain farmers

The opposition has renewed its demand for the minister’s dismissal after a special investigation team told a local court that the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed was a pre-planned conspiracy.

The court on Tuesday also allowed the SIT to add the attempt to murder charge in the FIR against the minister’s son, Ashish Mishra, and 12 others booked in the case, replacing it with lesser charges.

A video clip shows the minister getting angry when asked about these developments by a reporter from a television news channel.

“Don’t ask these stupid questions. Dimag kharaab hai kya be [Are you mad?],” the minister is seen shouting when asked by a journalist about a probe report that recommends new charges against his son.

He also calls the media “chor”, or thieves, and angrily asks a journalist to switch off his mobile phone.
The clip shows him moving aggressively towards a reporter.

The confrontation took place at a government health centre, 15 kilometres from the Lakhimpur Kheri district headquarters, where he had gone to inaugurate an oxygen plant.

The hospital falls in Mishra’s Kheri parliamentary constituency, from where he has been elected twice.