SIT files 5,000-page charge sheet in Lakhimpur Kheri case; Ashish Mishra prime accused

As many as 14 accused have been arrested and are currently lodged in jail

Almost three months after eight people were killed in violence during a farmers' protest at Lakhimpur Kheri district, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killing filed a charge sheet on Monday in which union Minister of State Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish was named the key accused.

According to the police sources, the charge sheet that runs into 5,000 pages has named 17 persons, including Ashish. As many as 14 of them have been arrested and were currently lodged in jail.

"Ashish Mishra has been made the key accused in the case," said a senior police official in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Also Read | SIT arrests farmer for lynching BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri as 90-day probe period draws to a close

Police sources said that the prosecution had also listed 208 witnesses who would be deposing in the court. Sources said that the SIT had stated that Ashish was present on the scene of violence.

The SIT had earlier said that the violence was part of a 'pre-planned conspiracy' and that the accused persons had perpetrated the crime deliberately. It had approached the district court in Lakhimpur Kheri, where the matter was being heard, seeking to invoke stringent sections of the IPC in the case, including those of murder and criminal conspiracy.

Saying the incident was not a case of rash driving, the SIT invoked sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 120B (Criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and some others in the case.

Eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in the district in October 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.

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.

The incident had triggered nationwide outrage and the Opposition parties had demanded sacking of Ajay Mishra from the union cabinet. The BJP government, however, rejected the demand for the sacking, apparently fearing a backlash from the Brahmin community in the forthcoming assembly polls in UP.

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