UP minister: Car that hit 8-yr-old not from my cavalcade

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The vehicle which hit the boy was not part of my cavalcade. Another vehicle running behind the cavalcade hit the boy... I am extremely sad over the death of the child. SHASHI PRATAP SINGH, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party general secretary, quoting minister Om Prakash Rajbhar

LUCKNOW: An eight-year-old boy died after being hit by a vehicle in Karnailganj, Gonda, on Saturday. His family alleged that the vehicle was part of the motorcade of Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar.

Rajbhar, who is from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an ally of the BJP in UP, however, denied that the vehicle was part of his convoy.

Angry villagers blocked the road in protest and they were eventually convinced by the police to lift the blockade.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced a relief of ₹5 lakh for the kin of the deceased and asked the office of the DGP to submit a detailed report.

“An FIR has been registered against unidentified people for causing the death of a child. The FIR registered by the child’s father Vishwanath claims that a vehicle in the convoy of a minister hit his child who died due to injury. No one has been named. All that the FIR states is a vehicle in ‘mantriji ka kaafila’ (minister’s motorcade) caused the accident,” Sadanand Singh, inspector, Colonelganj police station, said.

Rajbhar maintained that the boy was not hit by a car in his cavalcade.

“The vehicle which hit the boy was not part of my cavalcade. Another vehicle running behind the cavalcade hit the boy... I am extremely sad over the death of the child,” SBSP general secretary Shashi Pratap Singh quoted the minister as saying.

“I was informed about the incident after my cavalcade covered over 50km from the spot. I wanted to return to the spot to call on the kin of the child killed in the accident,” the leader further quoted minister Rajbhar as saying.

A delegation of SBSP headed by state unit president Anand Mishra will call on the boy’s relatives.

The minister was on his way to attend a function in Paraspur locality of Gonda when the incident occurred.

The child, Shiva, was playing on a pavement. He died on the spot.

The incident comes two days after a farmer of Orai in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district alleged that state jail minister Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki’s cavalcade of vehicles ran over his farm, ruining his seeds.