Lakhimpur violence: Minister's son doesn't show up before police, issued fresh summon for Saturday

As Mishra did not show up, reports emerged that he may have fled to Nepal

A policeman pastes a notice outside the residence of Union MoS for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra. Credit: PTI Photo

Union Minister Ajai Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, who was accused of running over four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri and was called for questioning by the cops, failed to appear before the police on Friday as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appeared to defend police's failure to arrest Ashish saying that no one could be held without proof.

According to the police sources here, Ashish has sought a day's time for appearing before the cops citing health conditions and has informed them that he will appear on Saturday.

There were, however, conflicting reports on Ashish's whereabouts. Some reports claimed that he had fled to Nepal, which shares a border with Lakhimpur Kheri district while other reports, citing police sources, said that he was in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand. Police officials said that they were looking for Ashish.

While both Ashish and his father Ajai Mishra had claimed that the former was not present in any of the vehicles, one of which ran over a crowd of farmers killing four of them, sources in the police in Lakhimpur Kheri said that the Minister's son was in one of the SUVs with a friend.

Read more: Will gherao PM Modi's residence if Lakhimpur incident culprits not arrested in seven days: Bhim Army chief

Meanwhile, in his first remarks on the violence, Adityanath on Friday appeared to defend Ashish saying that no arrest would be made without proof.

''We can not arrest someone merely on the basis of allegations.....arrest can only be made on the basis of evidence....the police is investigating the matter and action will be taken based on proof,'' Adityanath said while speaking to a private TV news channel.

Adityanath's remarks came on a day, when the Supreme Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, expressed its dissatisfaction over the investigation of the incident by the UP government and sought to know why the accused had not yet been arrested.

Eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in the district when hundreds of farmers held protests against Ajai Mishra. The Minister had earlier made remarks threatening the farmers of dire consequences if they continued to oppose the new farm laws.

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