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Lakhimpur Kheri: Supreme Court to hear today PIL seeking fair probe
The Lakhimpur Kheri incident is being probed by a special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Yogi Adityanath government, which on Tuesday released pictures of six people standing near an SUV that was set ablaze during the October 3 incident.
The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding the violent incident in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri earlier this month, which led to the deaths of eight people - including four farmers and a journalist. The court took up the case suo motu and in the last hearing, pulled up the Uttar Pradesh police for unsatisfactory progress in the probe, in which the son of a Union minister is among those chief accused in the incident.
Also Read | Lakhimpur Kheri: The violence, the aftermath and the politics
Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Mishra, was arrested by the cops six days after he was accused in the incident in Lakhimpur Kheri's Tikunia village, following a series of interrogation summons, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition who alleged that police action was delayed in view of the political status of the accused. The Supreme Court had also expressed its dissatisfaction over the investigation conducted by the state government in the case and asked the UP government to direct its state police chief to ensure that the evidence in the case is protected till the time another agency takes over.
The Lakhimpur Kheri incident is currently being probed by a special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Yogi Adityanath government, which on Tuesday released pictures of six people standing near an SUV that was set ablaze during the October 3 incident. The team has assured that details of those giving information will not be revealed besides informers will be given due rewards.
Also Read | What happened in Lakhimpur Kheri: Sequence of events according to both sides
“The SIT team probing the October 3 violence has got some photos and videos,” an SIT official was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency. “We are releasing photographs and appeal to people to identify them. Six photographs have been released for identification.”
So far, 10 people, including Ashish Mishra, have been arrested in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Farmers allege that Mishra was present in one of the vehicles which ran over the group of people during the incident. The Union minister's son, however, denies the charge and instead claims that he was present in Banbirpur village at the time to attend a wrestling event.
