NEW DELHI, 15 Oct: A delegation of Congress leaders, including former party president Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday met President Ram Nath Kovind and demanded immediate dismissal of Minister of State (MoS) for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh.
The senior Congress leaders presented a ‘memorandum of facts’ about the incident to the president and demanded that he order an independent judicial investigation by a commission comprising two sitting judges of the Supreme Court or the high court.
On 3 October, a cavalcade of vehicles – two of them allegedly owned by the minister and his family – mowed down four farmers who were protesting against the Centre’s farm reform laws.
“The deliberate act of murder in broad daylight, followed by the audacious reactions of the state and central governments, has completely eroded the people’s faith in those tasked with bringing these perpetrators to justice,” the Congress delegation said in the memorandum.
They said that, on 27 September, Mishra had threatened the agitating farmers and even boasted about his dubious antecedents.
“The video of his speech has been played on different public platforms and is available in the public domain. How can justice be done when the original provocation came from union MoS for home affairs himself?” the party questioned.
The Congress has been demanding immediate dismissal of the minister, whose son Ashish has been named in the FIR and is accused of mowing down the farmers. The party is also demanding strict action against the accused in the killing of the farmers.
