E-Paper
Lakhimpur Kheri case: Police get three-day custody of Union minister’s son
The court instructed the police not to adopt any coercion or torture of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case
A local court on Monday sent Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra to three days’ police custody remand in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the violence on October 3.
Senior prosecution officer SP Yadav said, “Police had demanded a 14-day remand of Ashish Mishra. But chief judicial magistrate Chinta Ram’s court allowed police custody remand from October 12 to 15.”
Yadav added, “As per the Supreme Court guidelines, the court instructed not to adopt any coercion or torture of the accused.”
“Also, a lawyer of his (accused Ashish Mishra’s) choice may remain present during interrogation at a distance without causing any interference,” Yadav said.
The hearing on the police custody remand application began at the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Lakhimpur Kheri around 2pm under tight security. The hearing remained disturbed for a few minutes due to a technical snag in connecting the accused Ashish Mishra through video conferencing.
Ashish is currently lodged in Lakhimpur Kheri jail.
Defense counsel Awdhesh Dubey, Awdhesh Singh, Shailendra Gaur and others opposed the police application for custody remand. They argued the police had already questioned Ashish Mishra for 12 hours and no further questioning was required.
They also argued that no further recoveries were to be made from the accused.
The court allowed the police custody remand application for three days.
Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday (October 9) after being questioned for over 12 hours in Lakhimpur Kheri.
After the arrest, a court had sent Ashish Mishra to 14-day judicial custody.
The arrest came five days after he was booked in a murder case lodged at the Tikunia police station.
Ashish Mishra was named in an FIR following allegations that he was in one of the vehicles that mowed down four protesting farmers on October 3.
While farmer leaders and opposition parties had been demanding Ashish Mishra’s arrest, the minister and his son had denied the allegations.
Two BJP workers and their driver were allegedly lynched by angry farmers in the violence. Local journalist Raman Kashyap also died.
The Supreme Court had taken cognizance of the incident and asked the Uttar Pradesh government to take action against “whoever is involved.”
According to the police officials , Ashish Mishra was not able to explain several points about his whereabouts during the incident on October 3.
The police had issued their first notice to the minister’s son on October 7 asking him to appear before them on October 8, but he had missed the deadline. After a second notice was issued, Ashish Mishra appeared before the police for questioning on October 9.
After his arrest, the police had moved an application before the court for 14 days’ police custody remand.
However, the court had postponed the hearing on the application till Monday.
