Ashish Mishra, the son of union minister Ajay Mishra, who was accused of running over the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, was stated to be 'untraceable' even as the police on Thursday arrested two others, who were named in the FIR lodged in connection with the violence.
A senior police official said in Lakhimpur Kheri on Thursday that Ashish, who was the main accused in the incident and was booked for murder, had been summoned for questioning. ''The whereabouts of Ashish Mishra is not known,'' the official added.
Interestingly Ashish, who had denied the allegations and claimed that he was not in the vehicle, which allegedly ran over the farmers killing four of them at Tikonia area in the district on Sunday, had been giving interviews to the local media until Tuesday.
Ashish was not quizzed by the cops even after a case of murder was lodged against him and the emergence of at least two videos showing vehicles speeding through what looked like a crowd of farmers on a dusty village road.
Sources in the government, however, said that Ashish Mishra's arrest was imminent after the supreme court took suo motu cognisance of the incident and sought to know about the arrests of the accused persons. Sources quoted by the local media in Lakhimpur Kheri also said that Ashish could soon 'surrender'
Two other youths, identified as Ashish Pandey and Luvkush, have been arrested in connection with the violence.
The opposition parties slammed the state government for not being able to arrest the main accused in the matter. ''The arrogant BJP government has contracted cataract... it can not see what is very clear... several videos have surfaced, which show the involvement of the accused but the government is yet to act,'' Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said.
Akhilesh, who met the families of some of the victims of the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri on Thursday, demanded to sack union minister Ajay Mishra.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday set up a one-man judicial commission to probe the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district on Sunday in which eight persons, including four farmers and a local journalist, were killed and many others injured.
According to the official sources in Lucknow, the commission, which was headed by retired High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, would submit its report within two months.
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