All of last week, Lakhimpur Kheri, a district in Uttar Pradesh bordering Nepal, has been in the news over the killing of eight people, including four farmers. The farmers were mowed down by a speeding Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV); the others were killed in the violent reaction. After the incident, a video showing farmers walking on a stretch of road being run over by the SUV coming from behind, followed by two other SUVs, began circulating on social media. Ashish Mishra, whose father Ajay Kumar Mishra is Lok Sabha member from Lakhimpur Kheri and is the Union Minister of State for Home in the Narendra Modi government, was the prime accused in the case. The incident happened on October 3 during a protest by farmers against the three farm bills that the Central government brought in September 2020. Farmers at different locations bordering Delhi have been protesting for more than a year to demand repeal of these new laws.
After the incident, the Union minister came under a lot of fire over allegations that he was trying to shield his son. The minister was in Lakhimpur Kheri and took on questions from reporters, who descended upon this Terai lowlands at the base of the Himalayas in droves, boldly. The minister maintained that his son was not present at the scene of the crime. He was at a local wrestling event, the minister said. Ashish Mishra also appeared on television, parroting this story and dodging questions about his arrest since he is the prime accused in a case of murder.
A lot of politics played out in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls soon, over this incident. The Opposition – Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party general secretary Satish Mishra – lost no time in heading for Lakhimpur Kheri but were stopped in their tracks by the Yogi Adityanath government. The government said visit by these leaders to the bereaved families could spiral into a law and order problem and was therefore prevented. Some of these Oppositions were even taken into preventive custody and shown as arrested when the state government came under criticism for this illegal detention. The leaders were not produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, which is mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Yogi government was seen to be protecting a party leader’s son. The chief minister told a news channel that he will not act under anyone’s pressure, hinting that he would not arrest Ashish Mishra, simply because there was pressure from the Opposition for this. Obviously, how could he act against a central minister, that too one who handles the home portfolio. For his part, minister Ajay Kumar Mishra met his senior Union home minister Amit Shah to apprise him of the situation or to put forward his viewpoint. It appeared that he got Shah’s signal to not step down from the ministry.
And then stepped in the Supreme Court. The apex court took suo motu cognisance of the case and slammed the state police for its procrastination over the arrest of Ashish Mishra. Do they follow the same procedure – issuing summons to the accused for interrogation – in all cases registered under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, the court asked the state’s attorneys. This rap on the knuckles was too much for the UP Police to ignore and Mishra Junior was arrested on October 10, a week after the incident. Earlier, Mishra Junior walked to the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killings with his flunkeys and purportedly produced video clips to prove his innocence. But after a marathon interrogation lasting about 12 hours, the SIT officers announced to the waiting reporters that Ashish Mishra had been arrested for non-cooperation in the probe.
This was some reprieve to the grieving families but appeared to be a chimera because they believed – and rightly so – that until Ashish Mishra’s father was a minister, police may not investigate the case objectively and impartially. But the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders appeared arrogant and hell bent on crushing all such demands for resignation or sacking of the union minister of state for home.
This is reminiscent of how the ruling dispensation routinely behaves when faced with any demand for accountability. It was the moral duty of Mishra Senior to step down from his position to make way for a fair probe. That didn’t happen. Then it was the moral duty of his bosses – home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi – to sack him until the investigation. That also didn’t happen. Many wonder if the UP Police would have even arrested Ashish Mishra if there was the prodding by the Supreme Court. For its part, the UP Government had brokered truce the very next morning through negotiator Rakesh Tikait when it offered compensation of Rs 45 lakh to families of each deceased person and Rs 10 lakh to each injured person. But some newspapers called Tikait’s bluff and exposed his dubious role in the negotiations. After that, Tikait returned to his normal self, advocating the cause of the farmers.
The delay by the police in taking any tangible steps to investigate the case of murder raised questions over its functioning. It was an undisputed fact that the Thar jeep, the first SUV which rammed through the group of walking farmers, is registered in the minister’s son’s name. The cavalcade was travelling with the son to purportedly receive a senior party functionary. In light of these facts, the natural course of action should have been to interrogate and arrest the son of the minister immediately after the FIR was registered. The minister, on the other hand, must have been immediately sacked to ensure that there is no shadow of doubt over the investigation process.
Now that the wheels of justice have got rolling, albeit after the push from the country’s top court, it is imperative for the UP Police to do a fair investigation and bring the culprit, whosoever it may be, to book.
