Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra's son Ashish, who was accused of running over farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, was stated to be 'untraceable' on Thursday.
A senior police official said that the cops wanted to quiz Ashish, who was the main accused in the incident and was booked for murder, and were looking for him. "The whereabouts of Ashish Mishra is not known," the official said.
Interestingly, Ashish, who had denied the allegations and claimed that he was not in the vehicle which allegedly ran over protesting farmers, killing eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe in the Tikonia area of the district on Sunday, had been giving interviews to the local media until Tuesday.
Ashish was not quizzed by the cops even after a case of murder was lodged against him and the emergence of at least two videos showing vehicles speeding through what looked like a crowd of farmers on a dusty village road.
Sources in the government, however, said that Ashish Mishra's arrest was imminent after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the incident and sought to know about the arrests of the accused persons. Sources quoting the local media in Lakhimpur Kheri also said that Ashish could soon 'surrender'.
The opposition parties slammed the state government for not being able to arrest the main accused in the matter. "The arrogant BJP government has contracted cataract...it cannot see what is very clear.....several videos have surfaced, which show the involvement of the accused but the government is yet to act," Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said.
Akhilesh, who met the families of some of the victims of the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri on Thursday, demanded sacking of union minister Ajay Mishra.
Meanwhile the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday set up a one man judicial commission to probe the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
According to the official sources here, the commission, which was headed by retired High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, would submit its report within two months. The commission was likely to start its probe in the next few days.
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