CHANDIGARH
Punjab Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) delegations on Friday reached Lakhimpur Kheri and met the families of victims. While, PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu sat on fast at house of deceased journalist Ratan Kashyap’s house, until the main accused does not join investigations and is not brought into police custody, the SAD demanded immediate dismissal of union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra and arrest of his son Ashish Mishra.
Navjot Singh Sidhu along with Punjab Cabinet Minister Vijay Inder Singla, MLAs Raj Kumar Chabbewal, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Madanlal Jalalpur etc met the families of victim farmers and slain journalist and shared their grief. While assuring the victim families of every possible help, Singla said justice must be ensured and they would keep putting pressure on the Centre Government to immediately sack the Minister of State Ajay Mishra and arrest his son Ashish Mishra.
Former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also visited the residences of the four victim farmers as well as the house of the slain journalist, along with a delegation of senior SAD leaders including Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Bikram Singh Majithia, Manpreet Singh Ayali and Harmeet Singh Kalka in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Harsimrat Badal said it was condemnable that no action had been taken in the heinous case either by the central government or the Uttar Pradesh government despite clear cut evidence in the case. “The video footage of Ashish Mishra’s vehicle is available. There are eye witness accounts that Ashish Misra fled from the scene after mowing down the farmers. He should be arrested on murder charges immediately,” Harsimrat added.
The delegation visited Lovepreet Singh’s residence at Chaukhra village, Nachhattar Singh residence at Namdar Purve, Daljeet Singh at Vanjaran Tanda, Gurwinder Singh at Mohrnia and journalist Raman Kashyap’s residence at Nighasan village. SGPC President Bibi Jagir Kaur handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to each of the victim families besides assuring them that the Shiromani Committee would look after the educational needs of next of kin of the victims. The victim families were also given ‘parshad’ and ‘siropa’ from Darbar Sahib even as Bibi Jagir Kaur conducted ‘ardas’ to pray for peace to the departed souls.