Lakhimpur Kheri incident was well planned: SIT

On October 3, 8 people, including 4 farmers were mowed down by a SUV belonging to Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the killing of eight people, including four farmers, in Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which Union Minister Ajai Kumar Mishra's son Ashish Mishra is named as a prime accused, has said that the violence was part of a "pre-planned conspiracy" and that the accused had perpetrated the crime deliberately.

According to the sources, the police have approached the district court in Lakhimpur Kheri, where the matter was being heard, seeking to invoke stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code in the case, including those of murder and criminal conspiracy.

"The probe has revealed that there was a pre-planned conspiracy behind the incident...it was perpetrated deliberately...it is not a case of rash driving," said a senior police official in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Sources said that the cops had invoked sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, among others, in the case.

Ashish Mishra is currently lodged in jail along with 14 others in connection with the violence, even as Union Minister Ajai Kumar Mishra has claimed that his son is innocent and that he was not even present at the scene of the crime.

Read more: After victory, farmers on thanksgiving mission

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not sacking Ajai Mishra despite the demand from farmers and others and said that it reflected his (Modi) "anti-farmer" mindset.

Eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in October, when hundreds of farmers held protests against Ajai Kumar Mishra over the latter's remarks threatening them of dire consequences if they continued to oppose the new farm laws.

While both Ashish and Ajai Mishra had claimed that the former was not present in any of the vehicles, one of which ran over a crowd of farmers killing four of them, the farmers claimed that the minister's son was in one of the SUVs with a friend.

Watch the latest DH videos: