On Thursday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress general secretary, asked that the Lakhimpur Kheri violence be investigated by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge and that Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, whose son is among those implicated, quit guaranteeing an unbiased investigation. “In my opinion, and in the opinion of the victims’ families, the matter should be investigated by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge, not a retired judge,” Priyanka Gandhi told reporters after meeting the relatives of three of the eight persons murdered in the violence on Wednesday.
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The UP government has formed a one-member committee led by retired high court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava to investigate the violence during a farmers’ protest march on Sunday, which cost eight lives. Priyanka Gandhi stated before departing for Bahraich, “I’m not going to comment on the investigation since it hasn’t started yet. But, to conduct an impartial investigation, I believe the minister should retire, as he is in charge of the home portfolio, which includes all of this.”
According to the Congresswoman, the victims’ relatives told her that they were not interested in the government’s compensation offer but instead “wanted justice.” The minister should be “fired,” and those responsible for the crime should be arrested. “To stop us, the whole police force was mobilised, and it encircled the victims’ families, preventing anybody from reaching them. However, you (the government) did not use power to apprehend the offender. On the day of the event, where were the cops? Are the police just there to arrest leaders? “she said
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She said that the post-mortem copies supplied to the deceased’s relatives were unreadable. In connection with the violence, the Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a complaint against the minister’s son Ashish Mishra, although no arrests have yet been made. Four farmers were killed, reportedly by cars driven by BJP members, on their way to an event in the region to greet Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
