Lakhimpur Kheri Violence: Court sent Minister's son to 3-day police custody

Lakhimpur Kheri (UP): A local court in Lakhimpur Kheri sent Union Minister's son Ashish Mishra to police custody for three days on Monday in connection with the October 3 violence at Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri that claimed eight lives.

Son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday after being questioned for over 12 hours in Lakhimpur Kheri. The police said he had been giving "evasive answers" and not cooperating.

The Special Investigation Team, set up by the Yogi Adityanath government to probe the incident, had sought 14 days police remand of Ashish Misra from the Chief Judicial Magistrate in order to carry out further investigations and recreate the crime scene.

The public prosecutor said the custody can be demanded within 15 days of the arrest. "It was pure non-cooperation. During the 12 hours, he did not reply," the public prosecutor said.

Misra's counsel Avadesh Singh said, "They interrogated him for 12 hours. How much do they need to interrogate? Do they want to apply third degree on the accused? You can't beat him and take his statement... They have not given any reason why they need remand."

The hearing in Ashish Misra's remand case concluded with his lawyer denying all the allegations levelled against his client by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Some technical issues in video conferencing were reported when the court was to start the hearing in the case. The judge left the courtroom as there was a delay in connecting the video.

Misra was arrested late on Saturday night and produced the same night before a magistrate who sent him to judicial custody.

The arrest came a day after the Supreme Court reminded the Uttar Pradesh government that the law must take its course against "whoever is involved" amid nationwide outrage over the incident and mounting pressure from farmer groups.

Ashish Mishra has been named in an FIR filed by the farmers who said he drove into a gathering of slogan-shouting demonstrators amid a peaceful black flag protest last Sunday.

Though the Union Minister's son admits the SUV that ran over farmers belongs to him, but he maintains he was not in it. His team said he had produced around 150 images to show that he was not in the car that crushed the farmers.