A senior police officer related to the Lakhimpur Kheri investigation stated on Tuesday night that forensic examination of the rifle of Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra has revealed that the weapon has been discharged.
However, police stated it was not clear when the rifle was fired – whether or not on October 3, when the incident happened, or some other day.
Ashish Mishra alias Monu is without doubt one of the 13 accused dealing with the fees For the homicide of 4 farmers and a journalist in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh that day.
A convoy of three automobiles, together with a Mahindra Thar SUV owned by Union Minister Ajay Mishra, crushed all of the victims and killed them.
Villagers allege that firing happened throughout the incident. However, autopsies confirmed that not one of the 5 individuals – or the three others killed within the violence later that day – suffered gunshot wounds.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) examined 4 weapons of the jailed accused, which had been seized by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police probing the incident.
Three of those weapons- Ashish’s rifle; Pistol of Ankit Das, nephew of former Union Minister Akhilesh Das; And a repeater gun carried by Das’s bodyguard Latif was discharged.
Police sources stated the report of the forensic investigation of the fourth weapon, owned by Das’s aide Satya Prakash, remains to be awaited.
Police in Lakhimpur Kheri to recreate the sequence of occasions that happened at Tikoniya village in Uttar Pradesh on October 3 (Express Photo)
“Ashish’s rifle was handed over to the SIT by his family. The four seized weapons have been sent to FSL for ballistic test. We have now received the report, which states that three weapons were fired, which are of Ashish, Ankit and Latif. We will submit the report to the court as evidence,” stated the senior police officer.
The official stated that because the FSL report didn’t point out when the bullets had been fired, the accused would now have to supply proof that they didn’t fireplace the weapon on October 3.
Sources stated that forensic examination of a weapon reveals the presence of gunpowder solely after firing. However, the report corroborates the allegation of the farmers that there was firing on the web site of the incident, police stated.
In the FIR, complainant Jagjit Singh had alleged that Ashish Mishra had reached the spot in a convoy of three four-wheelers. In Tikonia, rushing automobiles plowed a gaggle of farmers who had been getting back from a protest. Ashish, who was sitting on the left aspect in Thar, allegedly opened fireplace because the automobile handed over the victims.
Ashish, who was arrested on October 10, has denied the allegations. He has claimed that on the time of the incident, he was in a wrestling program in his native village Banveerpur, about 2 km away. Ashish and his co-accused are lodged in District Jail Lakhimpur Kheri.
Soon after the incident, an indignant mob torched a Toyota Fortuner owned by Minister’s Thar and Ankit Das and thrashed Thar’s driver and two native BJP leaders. Mahindra Scorpio, the driving force of the third SUV within the convoy, fled along with his automobile.
The SIT has arrested 4 individuals for the homicide of Thar’s driver Hari Om Mishra and two BJP leaders Shubham Mishra and Shyam Sundar.
A courtroom in Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday despatched two of the 4 arrested – Ranjit Singh and Avtar Singh – to three-day police custody (PCR) from Wednesday.
The SIT had sought remand for interrogating the boys and taking them to the spot to reconstruct the crime scene.
Ranjit and Avtar had been recognized from pictures circulated by the police, which confirmed them standing near these allegedly concerned within the violence. Ranjit, Avtar, and the 2 different arrested individuals – Vichitra Singh and Gurvinder Singh – are all residents of Lakhimpur Kheri.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
