Ashish grilled for 8 hrs, more charges added

Arrest likely as police are not convinced that he was not present at Lakhimpur Kheri site

- NAMITA BAJPAI

ASHISH Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and the son of union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, was questioned for more than eight hours on Saturday by the Special Investigation Team of the crime branch headed by DIG Upendra Agarwal.

Sources said following the interrogation, the SIT asked the district police to add some more sections of the IPC to the FIR lodged against Ashish and that his arrest was imminent.

The SIT was not convinced with his side of the story about the violence which rocked the Terai district on last Sunday, the sources added.

Ashish is understood to have provided videos and affidavits of 10 persons to the police to prove that he was not in the vehicle that ploughed into a group of protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Ashish appeared before the SIT set up by the Uttar Pradesh Police to probe the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case around 10:40 am. His interrogation began soon after as the SIT had come prepared with 40 questions.

The sources said during the questioning, Ashish claimed his innocence by reiterating that he was not present at Tikunia, the site of the incident. He reportedly insisted that he was at a ‘dangal’ (wrestling competition) taking place at Banbirpur village, some 3-4 km away from Tikunia, when the violence broke out.

So far, the Lakhimpur police have arrested two persons, Luvkush and Ashish Pandey, said to be close aides of Ashish.