JOIN USLakhimpur Violence: Ashish Mishra's friend Ankit Das files surrender application in court
Three days after the arrest of union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish — who was accused of running over four farmers — his friend Ankit Das, who was also allegedly present in the vehicle that sped through a crowd of protesting farmers at Tikonia in Lakhimpur Kheri district — and had been absconding — filed a surrender application in a district court on Tuesday.
According to sources, the surrender application was filed in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Lakhimpur Kheri town. The court has sought a report from the police on the application.
The cops have been looking for Ankit, who was the nephew of former union minister Akhilesh Das, but could not be apprehended after conducting raids at several places in Lucknow and elsewhere.
The cops had also recovered the SUV, in which he and Ashish were allegedly present, from the former's residence on Friday.
Sources in the police here said that Shekhar Bharti, who was driving the SUV, was already arrested.
Meanwhile, the special investigation team (SIT) that was probing the incident took Ashish into its custody on Tuesday and his grilling began at the police lines in Lakhimpur.
Police officials said that Ashish would also be taken to the spot, where the incident had taken place on October 3.
While both Ashish and his father 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 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.
Check out latest DH videos here