Lakhimpur Kheri violence: BJP government hides crime committed by its leaders, says Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said sending summons to Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra's son for questioning in the Lakhimpur Kheri case is only a formality and insisted he should resign for an unbiased probe into the incident.

"Sending of summons to the minister's son (Ashish Mishra) is a formality. The government has woken up after the Supreme Court intervention. The minister should resign," Yadav said while talking to reporters outside his residence in Lucknow before leaving for Bahraich to meet families of two farmers, who were killed in the violence.

"Otherwise, the officer who will be questioning him will have to first salute him and then interrogate him. Before leaving, the officer will have to again salute him due to his post," the former UP chief minister added.

Ashish Mishra, who was asked to appear before the police at 10 am on Friday in connection with the violence, did not reach the police lines till 10.30 am, sources said.

When asked about reports that the minister's son has fled to Nepal, Yadav said he did not have any information about this. "If this is true, the Centre should intervene and get the accused arrested from Nepal," he said.

The SP chief alleged that the BJP government hides crime committed by its leaders and welcomes them with "bouquets" in their party. "Videos and other evidence coming in along with eyewitness accounts suggest that the minister's son was behind running over the farmers. This 'damdaar' (strong) government, as it claims in its advertisements, is only for the 'taakatwar' (strongmen)," he said attacking the Yogi Adityanath government.

He said if SP gets voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections, his government will help farmers with "crores of rupees." The state government did not have Rs 2 crore to give to the deceased farmers' families, he added.

Yadav had on Thursday visited Lakhimpur Kheri and met family members of two farmers and a journalist, who had died in the violence.

On October 3, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri with four of them being farmers, who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area. The other four were two BJP workers, a driver of MoS Mishra and a journalist working for a private television channel.