Lakhimpur: New version of video reveals SUV mowing down farmers at high speed
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A still from the new viral video shot in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday
New Delhi: A clearer, longer clip of the viral video from Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri has emerged which reveals a black SUV, travelling at high speed and ramming into a group of farmers walking down a road slowly and peacefully.
The video shows the farmers falling to the ground as one SUV hits them, while another with its sirens blaring is being driven behind.
It also appears to contest claims by the minister Ajay Mishra and his son that their Mahindra Thar was under attack - it shows no stones or sticks being thrown at the car - and that the driver lost control resulting in the death of at least four farmers and injuries to many more.
However the authenticity of the video or the sequence of events that led to it has not been verified yet. According to witnesses, it was after this incident, that an enraged mob attacked the cars, set them on fire and four people in the convoy were beaten to death.
A lower resolution, slowed-down version of the same video was earlier shared by a series of opposition leaders as proof that the blame for the Sunday's clashes - that left eight people dead in all and many injured - lay on the convoy of minister's aides and BJP workers.
The farmers had gathered for a demonstration in the Uttar Pradesh district, where the junior home affairs minister Ajay Mishra and the state's deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had been due to visit.
Farmer groups have claimed that Mr Mishra's son had been in a car in the minister's convoy, or was driving it, when the vehicle ran over four protesters, killing them. He has denied this charge.
The incident marked a deadly escalation of the farmers' year-long campaign against controversial agriculture laws.
The new video emerged on a day when the Supreme Court announced it was taking up the case as media reports and a letter from two lawyers to Chief Justice NV Ramana cast doubts on the Uttar Pradesh police's investigation into the incident. Four days after a murder case was filed against him, the minister's son Ashish Mishra was yet to be arrested and government sources ruled out the minister Ajay Mishra's resignation following a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
