Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and said Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, whose son is among those booked, should resign to ensure an impartial probe. Priyanka Gandhi, who had on Wednesday met the families of three of the eight people killed in the violence, told reporters here, “In my view and that of the victims’ families as well, the case should be probed by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge, and not the retired judge.” The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a one-member commission of retired high court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava to probe the violence during a farmers’ protest rally that claimed eight lives on Sunday.
The state government has already issued a notification on the constitution of the commission which will be headquartered at Lakhimpur Kheri. It has been given two months’ time to complete the probe.
“The Governor is pleased to appoint Justice High Court, Allahabad (retd) Pradeep Kumar Srivastava as a single-member Commission of enquiry with Headquarters at Lakhimpur Kheri,” the notification dated October 6 said.
‘The Commission shall complete the enquiry within a period of two months from the date of the issue of this notification. Any change in its tenure shall be at the behest of the Government,” it added.
“I will continue my fight till the minister is sacked and his son is arrested. I have pledged this before the families,” she said.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged a case against the minister’s son Ashish Mishra in connection with the violence, but no arrest has been made yet. Four of the dead were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area. The other four were two BJP workers, a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, and Raman Kashyap, a journalist working for a private TV channel. While the first three were allegedly lynched by the agitating farmers, the scribe, according to his father, died after being hit by a vehicle when he was covering news of farmers’ protest against Maurya’s visit to Ajay Kumar Mishra’s native place.