Lakhimpur Kheri violence: 2nd FIR silent on SUV deaths

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

Lakhimpur Kheri, October 10

The counter-FIR in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence involving the killing of eight persons, including four farmers, a journalist and three BJP workers, has been registered on the complaint of a local BJP worker who was in the SUV that hit protesters allegedly killing five.

The complainant in the FIR is Sumit Jaiswal, who was captured in viral videos of the violence escaping from a Mahindra Thar, the first of the three SUVs to allegedly hit five persons.

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Jaiswal, dressed in a light blue kurta, can be seen getting off the Thar and running away, with the videos in question under police probe.

The cross-FIR (in which all cross-complaints against protesters are being merged) is silent on the SUVs ramming into protesters and alleges that “miscreants among the farmers lynched three BJP workers to death.”

Jaiswal, whom videos show as occupying a Thar, which is at the heart of the police probe in the matter, has not been questioned by cops in the case.

“It is rather strange that Jaiswal, whom everyone can see escaping in the viral videos, has not been interrogated. Let alone interrogation, he has become a complainant in the case and an FIR has been registered on his statement. He was one of the occupants in the vehicle that first hit the farmers and killed five people. The videos clearly show that,” says Jagpal Singh Dhillon, a friend of farmer Lovpreet Singh who died after being run over by an SUV.

In the latest FIR, registered at Tikonia police station, few metres from the crime spot on the Tikonia-Banbirpur road, Jaiswal says, “The complainant and other BJP workers were going in a Mahindra Thar (UP 31 AS 1000) to receive the chief guest (UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya). Hari Om was driving. My friend Shubham Mishra was in the vehicle. Miscreants among farmers suddenly attacked us with batons, bricks and stones. The driver lost balance due to injuries and halted. Protesters then started lynching Hari Om who died. They also lynched Shubham. I escaped otherwise I would have died too.”

Back in Tikonia, friends and family members of victims of October 3 violence said the FIR fits into the ruling BJP’s pledge to punish everyone involved in the violence, including those who beat up the SUV occupants after the vehicles killed some farmers.

Speaking to The Tribune, Vijay Mishra, the father of Shubham Mishra, one of the three BJP workers who died, said, “My son was seated behind Sumit Jaiswal in Thar. While Sumit escaped, Shubham could not. He was beaten up so badly, I had to identify him from his inner wear.”

Vijay Mishra and his wife Sushma Mishra have sought a CBI probe into the killings. They maintain that outsiders had infiltrated the farmers’ gathering on October 3.

“Local farmers could not have lynched our children. We know them. These were outsiders and anti-social elements. I was not informed of my son’s death until 12 hours after the incident. We ran from hospital to hospital to find him. When we did, his face was unrecognisable from the beating,” says a wailing Sushma Mishra.