[ad_1]
The son of the junior interior minister is accused of crushing a group of protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh.
A few days after the arrest of the nine people, Indian police arrested the son of a junior minister in the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a suspect. Be killed During farmers protesting the controversial agricultural law in northern India.
Police officer Upendra Agarwal said that Ashish Mishra was detained after a one-day interrogation in Lakhimpur Kheri, a small town in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
He is the son of Ajay Mishra, Minister of the Interior.
Farm leaders said that a car owned by the minister ran over a group of protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday, killing four people. They said that the minister’s son was in the car.
Ajay Mishra said his son did not show up in the incident, but he said that a car driven by “our driver” lost control and hit them after the farmers threw stones at the car and attacked with sticks and swords.
In the violence that broke out after the incident, the driver and three members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were killed by protesters.
Police Officer Agarwal said Mishra was arrested after “he failed to provide any supporting evidence that he did not show up in any of the three vehicles that passed through a group of farmers to kill four of them.”
The arrest occurred the day after the Supreme Court of India criticized the state government for not arresting Ashish Mishra.
On Friday, the minister’s son asked the police to wait for several hours for questioning before sending a message saying that he was unwell and could not catch up.
Farmer leader Dashanpal and opposition Congress party leader Akilesh Singh demanded that his father be removed from the Modi government.
The police said earlier this week that they have so far arrested 6 people and filed criminal proceedings against 14 others, including Ajay Mishra, in connection with the deaths of the four farmers.
Arvind Chaurasia, a senior official in charge of the area, said that the BJP also filed criminal proceedings against farmers for the deaths of its members and car drivers.
The police also said they found the body of a local journalist at the place where the violence occurred on Sunday, but did not provide more details about how he was killed.
The violence marked an escalation of ongoing protests against agricultural laws, which farmers said would destroy their livelihoods. Since the government passed the law in September last year, protests have continued and have been one of Modi’s biggest challenges.
Last week, thousands of farmers gathered on the fringe of the capital New Delhi to commemorate a year of demonstrations.
The government stated that the law needs to be amended to modernize agriculture and promote production through private investment.
But farmers said the law would destroy their income by ending guaranteed pricing and would force them to sell crops to companies at cheaper prices.
[ad_2]
Source link