Lakhimpur Kheri, October 10
His “inability to answer questions about the sequence of events” on October 3, when a group of farmers was crushed by one of his SUVs, ultimately landed Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra in jail.
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Mishra was arrested on Saturday night at 10.50 pm and after 12 hours of interrogation was sent to Lakhimpur Jail at around 1 pm on Sunday.
According to a senior official of the investigation team, Ashish Mishra could not reveal his location at the time of the incident between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm on October 3.
Witnesses have said that he was missing from the incident between 2 pm and 4 pm, with the location of his phone showing him close to the crime scene.
Though the minister’s son admitted that the SUV that crushed the farmers belonged to him, he said he was not in it. His team said that they had created around 150 images of a wrestling match where he was present on the day of the incident.
“He had one answer to every question – I was not present at the place where the incident took place. We asked him who drove his SUV, how many people were sitting in it, how many cars were in the convoy and how many people were there. He said he was not present,” said the police officer.
Asked why the car didn’t stop after hitting people and the road was crowded, Ashish Mishra had only one answer – I was not there.
Sometimes he would lose his cool and say, “Even if you ask me a million times, my answer will be the same.” He pretended to be completely unaware of the fact that his men carried weapons with him.
The families of at least two dead have claimed that the bodies had bullet marks on them – a fact denied in the postmortem report.
However, two empty cartridges of 315. bore rifle have been found from the spot, which proves that someone had fired.
When the police team asked him the veracity of the video footage he had produced to prove his presence in a wrestling match in the district, Ashish said, “You can test it with forensic experts.” He had no explanation about his whereabouts at the time when the incident took place as the wrestling match was over by then.
Asked why he was not cooperating with the probe, Ashish said, “I will come whenever I need to. I am not a criminal – I am the son of a politician and a businessman in my own right.”
Mishra was arrested a day after the Supreme Court reminded the Uttar Pradesh government that the law should take its course against “whoever is involved” amid nationwide outrage over the incident and mounting pressure from farmer groups.
As soon as the matter reached the Supreme Court, two people Luv Kush and Ashish Pandey were arrested on Thursday. Police said they were allegedly in the same vehicle that ran over a journalist and farmers.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier said that his government “will not arrest anyone on the basis of allegations”. — IANS