SACK MoS MISHRA: CONG TO PREZ KOVIND
A 5-member Congress delegation on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind to immediately dismiss Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Ajay Mishra Teni and direct an independent judicial probe by a Commission comprising two sitting judges of the Supreme Court or High Court into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
It said the provocation of the broad daylight murder of four agitating farmers and a TV journalist on October 3 in Lakhimpur by mowing them down under cars, two of which belonged to the minister’s family, was his threat to the agitating farmers at a public function on the day of Bharat Bandh on September 27. The five Congress leaders wanted him sacked for his role in the conspiracy to kill the farmers.
The delegation, which included former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge, his predecessor Ghulam Nabi Azad and former defence minister AK Antony, pointed out that MoS Teni also stands accused of a murder, a criminal appeal in which is pending before the Allahabad High Court since 2004.
Shockingly, the High Court reserved the judgment on March 12, 2018, but it has not delivered the verdict to date even after three years and seven months, the Congress leaders told the President in a memorandum, stressing “justice has been delayed to the point where it has effectively been denied and despite this context of criminality, the MoS continues in office.”
They said MoS Mishra’s role is yet to be probed and the same is unlikely when he continues in office. His son Ashish, who allegedly mowed down the farmers, driving his SUV, is in police custody for interrogations, but which police official would dare to fairly probe with his father occupying a position of such high influence and who enjoyed endorsements from both the central and the state governments, the memo said.
The Congress leaders later told reporters they approached the President as the custodian of Constitution and the moral compass to the government, in the context of the deliberate act of five bone-chilling murders that were followed by the audacious reactions of the state and central govts, completely eroding the people's faith in those tasked to bring the perpetrators to justice.
They said the President was also told how the UP Government and the Police refused to lodge an FIR and arrest the accused till the Supreme Court cracked the whip. Son of the minister was taken into custody as an accused only after Rahul and Priyanka visited the families of the deceased and demanded justice.