Lakhimpur violence: Ashish Mishra remanded to police custody, Priyanka observes 'maun vrat'

Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, who was accused of running over four farmers, was on Monday remanded to three-day police custody by a district court in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Ashish was arrested on Saturday by the special investigation team (SIT) probing the incident after grilling him for eleven hours.

The police, in its remand application, said that Ashish did not cooperate with them during the questioning and that he answered only a few questions during 12-hour grilling.

The CJM court later allowed three-day remand of Ashish though the prosecution had sought 14-days' remand.

Read | Lakhimpur violence: UP Cong leaders observe 'maun vrat'

While both Ashish and his father Ajay 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 of his.

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

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday observed 'maun vrat' along with scores of party leaders before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the GPO Park here demanding dismissal of Ajay Mishra from the union cabinet.

Priyanka had said while addressing a public meeting at Varanasi on Sunday that her party would not rest till Ajay Mishra was sacked.

UP minister and senior BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh slammed Priyanka for what he termed an attempt to exert pressure on the police in the Lakhimpur violence case. "The police are doing their job....pressure tactics will not work," Singh added.

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