Lakhimpur Kheri a ‘planned conspiracy’ to kill farmers, say cops

The Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which a minister’s son’s convoy ran over and killed protesting farmers was a “planned conspiracy” with intent to commit murder and not a case of death by negligence, the Special Investigation Team told the court.

Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s jailed son Ashish Mishra and others were charged with rash driving, conspiracy and murder but the police have sought that it should be modified to add attempt to murder and voluntarily causing hurt charges.

The minister met his son in jail on Tuesday (December 14).

The killing of the farmers by the minister’s son’s convoy on October 3 had created a huge uproar in the country, especially after it was alleged that Ashish Mishra actually drove one of the vehicles.

Farmers who had been protesting against the three controversial farm laws brought by Centre, upping their ante. About two months later, the government withdrew the laws.

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Initially, the Lakhimpur police had filed two FIRs, one on behalf of the dead farmers and the other against protesting farmers, in which many of the protesters were charged with instigating violence after the vehicles ran over some of them.

The police were also initially lax in investigating the case against Ashish Mishra and only arrested him after the Supreme Court put pressure on them.

The court also added three IPS officers not from Uttar Pradesh to the Special Investigating Team after concerns were raised that the local police would manipulate the probe.

The turn in the case comes as the BJP prepares for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the Yogi Adityanath government faces an uphill task of retaining power for the party amidst mounting challenges.