All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the October 3 violence in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.
Addresing a rally in UP's Balrampur, the Hyderabad MP said PM Modi is not removing Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Mishra from the Union Cabinet because he belongs to the upper caste. The UP Assembly elections are approaching and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won't get votes from the upper caste if the minister is sacked, added Owaisi.
Owaisi said, "Why does Narendra Modi not remove Ajay Mishra from cabinet? If the father is a minister, the vehicle belonged to him, it caused death of 5 farmers, he warns people & 2 days later 5 farmers are killed, why does Narendra Modi not sack him?
"It is because Ajay Mishra belongs to the upper caste, elections are approaching and they won't get the votes of the upper caste. Had his name been Atiq instead of Ashish, wouldn't they have run a bulldozer over his house?" he added.
For the unversed, the Union minister's son Ashish Mishra is the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. He was produced before a court late on Saturday night, which sent him to 14-day judicial custody.
After around 12 hours of questioning in connection with the violence, a medical team examined Ashish Mishra in the crime branch office after which he was taken for production before a judicial magistrate, who sent him to custody, senior prosecution officer SP Yadav told news agency PTI.
He said an application for police remand of Ashish Mishra was submitted to the judicial magistrate who fixed it for hearing for 11 am on Monday.
Mishra was named in an FIR following allegations that he was in one of the vehicles that mowed down four farmers protesting over UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit last Sunday.
Farmer leaders and opposition parties had been demanding Mishra's arrest but the minister and his son had denied the allegations.
