Ashish Mishra to face trial in murder of Lakhimpur Kheri farmers

Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh): Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, will now be tried for the murder of four farmers and a journalist during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri last year against the now-repealed farm laws.

A court in Lakhimpur Kheri framed charges against him and the other accused on Tuesday and announced that the trial will begin on December 16.

This comes a day after the court rejected Mishra’s discharge petition.

The police charge sheet has accused Mishra of murder.

It is alleged that he was in an SUV that ran over four farmers and a journalist during a protest march 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 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.

A speech by the Union minister before the incident, in which he allegedly threatened to ‘fix farmers in two minutes’ if they did not stop the agitation, started doing the rounds in the aftermath of the killings, with many calling for his resignation.

Ashish Mishra was arrested days after the farmers’ deaths, following an intervention by the Supreme Court.

The Allahabad High Court granted him bail in February, raising questions on the police investigation.

On April 18 this year, the Supreme Court cancelled the bail granted to Ashish Mishra and asked him to surrender within a week.

The court observed that the victims were denied ‘a fair and effective hearing’ in the Allahabad High Court, and added that the high court took a ‘myopic view of the evidence’.

In the discharge plea filed before the Lakhimpur Kheri court, Ashish Mishra and the other accused had contended that they had been wrongly charged. The court rejected the pleas of all the accused.

-IANS