SC takes suo motu cognisance, CJI-led bench to hear matter today

LAKHIMPUR VIOLENCE: RAHUL, PRIYANKA MEET VICTIMS’ FAMILIES

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri violence, in which a total of eight people have died, four allegedly mowed down by a vehicle owned by Union Minister of State and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni.

A Bench led by CJI N V Ramana will hear the matter on October 7.

The development came on a day when several Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, flocked to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims of the violence.

Meanwhile, junior minister Mishra met Union Home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday for the first time since a murder case was registered against his son, sources said.

Mishra also attended his first-floor office in the North Block here and stayed for about half-an-hour before visiting Shah at his residence, they said.

The two leaders were closeted for about half an hour and Mishra is understood to have briefed Shah about Sunday’s incident in his home district of Lakhimpur Kheri.

The Congress leaders, on the other hand, met the family members of farmers killed in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri and promised them all assistance. They arrived in Lakhimpur after the Uttar Pradesh government allowed them to visit the violence-hit district. Rahul and his sister left for Lakhimpur together in a car from a police guest house in Sitapur where she was kept in detention since Monday morning.

Senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said he was detained along with Acharya Pramod Krishnam by the police in UP’s Moradabad when they were on their way to meet the families of the four farmers killed in the violence.