Lakhimpur probe: Firearms found in Lucknow house of Ashish Mishra’s friend

Pistol registered in the name of Ankit Das while repeater gun is in his gunner Latif’s name, say police officials

LUCKNOW A day after investigators probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence recreated the crime scene in Banbirpur village of the district, they recovered a pistol and a repeater gun from the Lucknow residence of Ankit Das, the friend of the minister’s son and one of the four accused in the case.

The protesting farmers had claimed that shots were fired by the minister’s son Ashish Mishra, the main accused, at the site of incident. (Pic representation)

The pistol was registered in the name of Ankit Das while the repeater gun was in his gunner Latif’s name, said police officials. Officials visited a hotel in Lucknow where Ankit stayed for two days after the Lakhimpur violence and collected CCTV footage from there.

The Investigation Committee was searching for the weapons allegedly used in the incident, in which four farmers were mowed down by an SUV and four others killed in the ensuing violence on October 3. On Friday, the team had taken two accused – Ankit Das and his gunner Latif -- back to Lucknow from Lakhimpur.

The protesting farmers had claimed that shots were fired by the minister’s son Ashish Mishra, the main accused, at the site of incident. The police also confirmed recovering two empty cartridges from the spot. But the investigators were yet to recover the firearms from which the bullets were fired.

Meanwhile, the three-day police custody remand of Ashish Mishra ended on Friday. Mishra was lodged in Lakhimpur jail on Thursday night, where he will remain in judicial custody. The police team investigating the matter was likely to appeal again in the court for the custody remand of Ashish on Monday.

Avdhesh Kumar Singh, the counsel of Ashish Mishra, reiterated that the latter was not present on the spot when the incident occurred. “We will apply for his bail before the court on Monday, basing our argument on the fact that my client Ashish Mishra was not present on the spot when the incident occurred,” said Singh.

On Thursday, the four accused, including Ashish Mishra, Ankit Das, his gunner Latif alias Kaale and his driver Shekhar Bharti — were taken to the site of the incident on the Tikunia-Banbirpur road to recreate the crime scene.

The investigators recreated the scene by placing mannequins as per the information collected by eyewitnesses before making three four-wheelers run on the narrow road of Banbirpur village, where the four farmers were allegedly mowed down, leading to the violence killing four others, said a police official privy to the investigation.

The data of the crime scene recreation will be examined by forensic experts.