New Delhi, October 5
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday cited a new video clip showing an SUV mowing down farmers and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to see it.
“Have you seen this video Modi ji? This video shows the son of a member of your council of ministers running over farmers with his vehicles. Please see this and tell the country why is this man still at large and why has the minister not been sacked?”
AAP leader Sanjay Singh and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also shared the video on Twitter and Facebook, respectively, asking why no arrests have been made 48 hours after the incident, which left eight persons, including four farmers dead.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Varun Gandhi sharing the same video said it was soul wrenching and perpetrators seen in the clip should be identified and brought to justice.
Vadra asked the prime minister, who is visiting Lucknow to inaugurate a programme on urban transformation as part of Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations, to come to Lakhimpur Kheri and give justice to farmers.
She said the government must answer why when opposition leaders such as herself have been kept under detention without warrants or basis, the perpetrators of the crime against farmers of the area are at large.
“The farmers got us freedom. Their sons defend our borders. You have taken the oath of the Constitution to protect them. You owe the country answers,” Vadra said.
The UP administration had yesterday struck a truce with the agitating farmers by announcing Rs 45 lakh compensation for the kin of each of the four deceased farmers and Rs 10 lakh for every injured.
The FIR with murder sections was also registered against Ashish Mishra, the son of union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra accused of protecting his son.
The son is accused of running over farmers who were returning home after a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.
The minister has denied his son’s presence at the crime scene and cited an alibi that he was at a local school where a wrestling match was underway all day Sunday.
The minister and his son have demanded a judicial probe into the violence that also left three BJP workers and the minister’s driver dead.
The minister has accused miscreants among farmer groups of lynching the four to death and has said the SUV in question lost balance after stone pelting by some people.
An uneasy calm prevails in Lakhimpur Kheri where four CAPF companies have been deployed and politicians have been barred from entry.
