Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, accused of running over four farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur was arrested on Saturday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident after a marathon grilling lasting for over eleven hours. This comes six days after eight people were killed in violence during a protest by the farmers in the region.
According to the police sources, Ashish was arrested after he failed to satisfactorily answer the questions posed by the cops.
Sources said that he was evasive and non-cooperative. ''Ashish has been arrested as he did not cooperate with the police,'' a senior police official said in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Ashish, who failed to appear before the cops on Friday, drove to the police lines in Lakhimpur Kheri town, accompanied by his lawyer, and submitted himself for questioning.
According to the police sources here, Ashish handed over around a dozen pen drives, which purportedly contained videos showing his presence elsewhere on the day the incident had occurred.
He also submitted a few affidavits containing statements of the witnesses, who claimed that he was not present on the spot on October 3, when eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in the district.
Sources said that Ashish was confronted with the videos, which were in possession of the police and was grilled on his whereabouts at the time of the incident.
A large number of BJP workers had gathered outside the police lines while Ashish was questioned by the cops.
Ashish was earlier called for questioning by the cops on Friday but he failed to appear before the police.
While both Ashish and his father Ajay Mishra had claimed that the former was not present in any of the vehicles, one of which ran over a crowd of farmers, the farmers claimed that the minister's son was in one of the SUVs with a friend of his.
Hundreds of farmers had held protests against Ajay Mishra over his remarks threatening them with dire consequences if they continued to oppose the new farm laws.