Lakhimpur violence: SIT charges MoS Mishra's son, 13 others

Lucknow: The special investigation team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh police probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, in which four farmers and a journalist were murdered in last October, submitted a 5,000-page chargesheet to a local court, saying Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni was at the spot during the incident, inside one of the SUVs involved in the attack on protesting farmers and the journalist.

Both minister Teni and his son have claimed multiple times in the last three months that Ashish was not in the SUV or on the spot during the incident. "Witnesses have said that he (Ashish Mishra) was at the spot during the incident and this is a part of the CD (case diary)," senior prosecution officer SP Yadav told reporters in Lakhimpur.

Thousands of pages of the chargesheet were brought to the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Lakhimpur town in a big trunk secured by two locks earlier this morning by the police. If the court accepts the chargesheet, a trial in the case will start at a date given by the court. After four farmers and a journalist were run over, allegedly by an SUV driven by Ashish Mishra, violence broke out in which three more, including two BJP workers, were killed.

Videos on social media that shocked the nation and sparked anger showed an SUV running over farmers at full speed.

Last month, the SIT told the designated local court that the killing of the farmers and the journalist was a "planned conspiracy" with intent to commit murder and not a case of death by negligence.