Lakhimpur Kheri Violence: Plea in Supreme Court seeks probe into alleged involvement of Dept CM Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya and State Minister Ajay Mishra

Read Time: 05 minutes

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court demanding an independent inquiry into the alleged involvement of Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Minister of State Ajay Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence matter.

The plea has stated that,

"although this Hon’ble Court has already taken cognizance and also formed “SIT” for fair inquiry and the inquiry has submitted a report in which it was mentioned that incident was pre-planned but may be some part of the incident had not been examined by the SIT, therefore, some powerful accuse has yet neither call by police officers nor sent Judicial Custody."

The plea has been filed by two farmers who are residents of Haryana in relation to the the violence that erupted after a car allegedly belonging to Ashish Mishra, son of Minister of State (MoS) for Home Ajay Mishra, allegedly ran over the farmers who were protesting against the Centre's three farm laws ahead of an event in Tikunia, whereas, four farmers were killed in the incident.

The petitioners have stated that since they are are citizens of India, they have been mentally aggrieved due to the incident that occurred in Lakhimpur Kheri in which it was reported that least 8 people were killed and several injured after violence broke out during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur-Kheri District, Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioners have alleged that the incident has intensified the politics in the poll-bound state as the agitating farmer and affected persons in the incident demanded the resignation of Ajay Mishra and Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The plea further alleged that Mishra threatened the farmers stating that ,

"You are also a farmer. Why didn't the movement spread here? These are 10-15 people. If I got down from the car, they would not have got a way to escape. 10-15 people working behind the back make noise here. In this way, if the agricultural laws were bad, then the movement should have spread throughout the country. Why didn't it spread? I want to tell such people get better. Otherwise we will correct you. It will take two minutes only."

"I am not just a minister, MP or MLA. Those who would have known about me before becoming an MLA or a minister know that I do not run away from any challenge. The day I accepted that challenge and worked and remember this that if I would have to leave Ballia to Lakhimpur," the petitioners added.

The petition has been filed Tej Bahadur through Advocate on Record Sanjeev Malhotra and Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav.

Case Title: Tej Bahadur and Anr. vs. Union of India and Ors.