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Lakhimpur violence: Minister’s son and 3 others taken to site,crime scene recreated
Investigators recreate the scene by placing mannequins as per the information from eyewitnesses to the incident, make three four-wheelers run on the narrow road of Banbirpur village
LAKHIMPUR KHERI The investigation committee probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Thursday took Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son and three others arrested in the case to the site to recreate the sequence of events leading to the violence in Tikunia village of this district.
The four included Ashish Mishra, Ankit Das, his gunner Kaale and driver Shekhar Bharti. Amid tight security, they were taken to the site of the incident on the Tikunia-Banbirpur road, around 60 km from Lakhimpur city, said police.
The investigators recreated the scene by placing mannequins as per the information collected from eyewitnesses to the incident 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. Three vehicles were placed one after the other to repeat the exact sequence of events on the day of violence, said a police official privy to the investigation. He said the entire exercise was video recorded for thorough analysis.
The investigators were reported to have also visited neighbouring places to verify the statements of the accused. Media were not allowed near the spot of crime.
The police official said the investigation committee later visited the MoS’s village (Banbirpur) where the wrestling competition was to be inaugurated by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya during his visit to Kheri on the day of incident.
Eight people died in the October 3 violence and of them, four were farmers, allegedly knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers. Infuriated farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver. In the incident, a journalist was also killed.
So far, the police had arrested six accused, including the Union minister’s son, his two accomplices, Luv Kush and Ashish Pandey, in connection with the case.
The minister’s son, Ashish Mishra, was arrested on October 9 after 12 hours of questioning, and a court accepted his police custody from October 12 to 15. Das, Latif and Bharti were in police custody from October 14 to 17. On Thursday, investigators reached the district jail premises in the morning to take Das, Latif and Bharti into police custody.
Meanwhile, family members of deceased BJP worker Shubham Mishra reached crime branch office and demanded arrest of his killers. Shubham, a resident of Shivpuri locality of the city and reported to be a BJP booth in-charge, was killed in subsequent violence after the killing of four farmers in Tikunia on October 3.
