The prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri farmer run-over case Ashish Mishra was finally arrested late on Saturday after a 12-hour long interrogation. The action came 5 days after he was named in the murder case.
Typically, in murder cases, the accused gets arrested or at least questioned immediately. Delay in arresting him this time has been attributed to the probable VIP treatment being given to the alleged murderer due to the position of his father junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra.
Ashish Mishra did not show up for his earlier summons, as recent as Friday. His father claimed that he could not be present due to poor health. However, junior Mishra was arrested after being produced in a court in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday night. He has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Shockingly, the notices issued to Ashish Mishra mentioned a law concerned with the summoning of witnesses in the police station, not the accused- highlighting the way the UP police is dealing with the high-profile person charged in the matter.
In the 12-hour long questioning round, Ashish could not explain many details linked to the case, including his whereabouts and several questions raised by the cops, top sources in the UP police said.
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The minister’s son had said that he was at a wrestling event that day, though witnesses and the cops posted there said he wasn’t present from 2 pm –4 pm. Moreover, his phone location showed him closer to the crime spot during this time. Ashish then said that he was at his rice mill which was closer to the crime scene and under the same phone tower.
Another point that added to his vague alibi was the FIR filed by his aides against the farmers. In the First Information Report, they mentioned that the man driving Mahindra Thar, apparently Hari Om, was killed by the farmers. However, the videos surfaced of the unfortunate day show a person wearing a white shirt or kurta driving the Thar car and when Hari Om was brought to the hospital, he was wearing a yellow kurta.
Ashish made the UP police’s senior officer wait for 3 hours before he came on Friday night. He was brought in from the backdoor of the station to help him avoid the media and their questions after which he was interrogated through the night.
The tale started last Sunday after two cars rammed into a group of farmers peacefully carrying out a black flag protest in UP. 8 people died in the attack, including 4 farmers and 4 from the convoy. The FIR filed by the farmers mentions the name of Ashish Mishra as the person driving the SUV. Amid a countrywide outrage and pressure from farmers groups to arrest him despite days after the incident, the Supreme Court lashed out at the UP police for delaying action.
The CJI reminded the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday that it ought to take the necessary steps against “whoever is involved”.
Slamming the Adityanath government for its lack of action, Chief Justice NV Ramana said, “What is the message that you are sending? Even in normal circumstances… will the police not go immediately and arrest the accused? Things have not proceeded the way they should have. It appears to be only words and not actions.”
The minister’s son maintained that though the SUV belonged to him, he was not present in it at the time. He also allegedly gave about 150 pictures to prove that he wasn’t the one driving the SUV, as per his team. However, to fuel the suspicion, Ajay Mishra had flown down to meet his boss Amit Shah soon after the incident.
The car that crushed a journalist and farmers also had Luv Kush and Ashish Pandey seated inside. They were arrested on Thursday after the Supreme Court got involved.
Calling the opposition leaders as “no goodwill messengers”, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seemed to brush off the attacks on them as the leaders were on their way to meet the grief-stricken families.
