By Express News Service
LUCKNOW: Lakhimpur Kheri violence continued to be a political flashpoint on Thursday with leaders of various parties jostling to visit the grieving families of deceased farmers. In all eight persons were killed of which four were farmers, one was a journalist and rest three were BJP workers.
While former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Mishra went to Lakhimpur Kheri, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra went to Nanpara in Bahraich district to meet the farmers’ families.
Raising the pitch of justice for the victim families, the SP chief expressed doubts over the intent of the government asking how justice would be ensured when the main accused was the son of a Union minister. Yadav said the main accused had not yet been arrested although evidence pointed to his role.
“All fingers are raised towards MoS in the BJP government. The accused are not yet sent to jail,” said Yadav. The SP chief also launched a broadside on the BJP government over a Kanpur trader’s killing in Gorakhpur. “We want to know what was done in Kanpur’s Manish Gupta’s case. Why are policemen still absconding? Why an absconding IPS officer is not arrested?”
Priyanka sought justice for the victim families of Bahraich and said the matter “should be probed by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge”. For an unbiased probe, the minister must resign, she asserted.On the other, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was taken into custody in Saharanpur while leading a protest march by Congress workers to Lakhimpur Kheri. He was taken to Sarsawa Air Force station. The party members accompanying Sidhu were also taken into custody. Another delegation led by Uttarakhand Congress leaders including Harish Rawat was also taken into custody in Saharanpur.
