Lucknow: On Tuesday after spending 129 days in jail, Ashish Mishra, the son of union home minister for state, Ajay Mishra Teni was released. He was granted bail by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court last week. Ashish is the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which four farmers who were agitating peacefully against farm laws were crushed to death. He was arrested by police on October 9 last year and was in jail since then.
The release of minister Teni’s son might cost dear to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Terai belt of UP including Lakhimpur where polling would be held in the fourth phase. In the fourth phase of UP elections, polling would be held in Terai regions of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur and Sitapur. Though BJP has been saying that the matter of Teni’s son was in court which granted him bail, but it feels that the matter would be raised by the opposition parties in the elections. The Congress as well as the Samajwadi Party has already started targeting BJP over the bail.
After Teni’s son was released, farmer leader and spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rakesh Tikait said that he would write a letter to the agrarian community asking them to teach a lesson to those who betrayed them. Tikait said that no common man can get bail so easily after committing such a heinous crime. He said that the government has helped Teni’s son in getting the bail and farmers are watching this helplessly. He said that promises made by BJP in the 2017 assembly elections were never kept. The BKU leader said that it promised to waive loans of 87 lakh farmers but the benefit was given to 44 lakh only. Tikait said a team of farmer’s organisation would go to Lakhimpur soon and meet the families of the deceased.
