Locals say video evidence proves gruesome episode
LUCKNOW: Rajdeep Singh was walking back home with his father Daljeet Singh on Sunday afternoon when he says he heard the roar of an approaching vehicle.
The 14-year-old and his 35-year-old father, a farmer, were returning from a protest against Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Tikunia hamlet in Lakhimpur Kheri district. It was around 2.30pm.
“It all happened in front of me…my father was knocked down by the vehicle. I tried to hold him but couldn’t do anything,” said Singh. He said the car --- a Mahindra Thar that ran over his father from behind -- was part of the cavalcade of Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minster Ajay Mishra Teni.
“As my father lay unconscious on the road, my uncle held his head in his hands. That was the last thing I remember,” added Singh, who fainted on the road after witnessing the violence that soon broke out. He cremated his father on Tuesday.
Singh’s father was among four farmers allegedly mowed down by a car owned by the minister. Four other people – two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, a driver and a local journalist – were also killed in the violence. The deaths sparked a political storm on Monday and forced the government to announce a judicial probe and ₹45 lakh compensation for the victims. The minister and his son have blamed the farmers for the violence and said they were not present at the spot on Sunday. They also say that farmers lynched the BJP workers and the driver.
Harpreet Singh, a 28-year-old farmer, was standing on the roof of a house on the road along with at least 20 others, and said he saw the carnage unfold.
“This car kept speeding till it reached the spot where farmers had assembled. I saw it plough into the crowd from behind. To save themselves, farmers jumped into ditches on both sides of the road. It appeared like a tractor moving through a field, crushing the plants and leaving tyre marks behind. People started shouting…i couldn’t believe my eyes.”
A third eyewitness – 39-yearold farmer Balvinder Singh Mangat – said he was standing hardly
10 metres from the spot with his friends. “We heard a thumping sound of a vehicle moving from behind into the crowd, followed by cries of farmers. The second car was seen going down into the ditch. But I was alarmed when I saw a third car speeding towards us. We pushed ourselves on the sides of the culvert to escape being hit and saw this third car fleeing,” he said.
Joginder Singh Virk, a local farmer, said people jumped into ditches on either side for safety.
“Everything was quiet for around 30 seconds, before people started coming out to check the injured and the dead lying on the road. Everyone looked alarmed and some were angry. People started calling out for help and cars were brought in to ferry the injured. I saw people running behind the driver of the first car,” said Virk.
Sumit Jaiswal, who was reportedly one of the occupants of the SUV that knocked down the farmers in the district, claimed that they were attacked by the protesters.
“The protesters pelted stones on our vehicle and attacked us. I saw the driver of my SUV being attacked by angry miscreants… I ran for my life,” he told reporters in Lakhimpur. Jaiswal also said that Ashish was not in the vehicle at the time of the incident.