Lakhimpur Kheri deaths: SIT seeks custody of MoS son, 3 others

The SIT move came after it had identified drivers and several occupants of three SUVs, which ran over protesting farmers on October 3, killing four of them and a journalist. Three others were killed in the subsequent violence.

“Besides Ashish Mishra, police have moved an application seeking police remand of Ankit Das, his driver Shekhar Bharti and private gunner Lateef for three days. A local court has fixed Friday to hear the petition,” said government counsel SP Yadav. Police said they wanted to confront Ashish Mishra and others with four other accused arrested on Monday.

This is the second time SIT has sought police custody of the four accused. Ashish’s first police custody ended on October 15 morning. During his remand period, Ashish was taken to the incident site where SIT recreated the crime scene. He was taken to his native village Banveerpur where, he claimed, he was attending a wrestling match at the time of the incident. Meanwhile, the Lakhimpur Kheri court Thursday sent four other accused — Sumit Jaiswal, Shishu Pal, Nandan Singh Bhist and Satya Prakash Tripathi — to three days’ police custody. They were arrested on Monday and are lodged in jail. Their police custody would start from Friday, said Yadav.

SIT has so far taken statements of two dozen witnesses and arrested 10 people.