One of the victims of the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri, allegedly crushed by Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son happened to be a teen farmer.
19-year-old Lovepreet Singh in his last moments called his father from hospital and begged him to reach the hospital as soon as possible.
"When they took him to hospital, he called, I said 'Beta, how are you'. He said 'Papa, main theek hoon. Jaldi aa jao (I am ok. Please come soon)'. I said we are on our way. But when we reached Lakhimpur Kheri, he had died," Lovepreet's father Satnam Singh was quoted saying by NDTV.
"My son told us he is going for the farmers' protest. He said black flags will be shown...They were brutally crushed by cars from the back. The cars tried to remove the protesters...Ajay-ji's (Union Minister Ajay Mishra) son was probably behind the wheel", Singh added.
The families of three farmers who died, cremated the bodies after hours of negotiation between farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and the state police. The body of a fourth farmer, who allegedly died of a gunshot wound, is likely to be sent for a second postmortem, which farmer leaders insist should be done at a Delhi hospital.
"My son was crushed under a car... They have not taken any action against the person responsible. The administration is trying to cover up," said 19-yer-old Lovepreet's father Satnam Singh shortly before the cremation.
Meanwhile, an injured protester has alleged that Union Minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish was driving the car that ran over farmers.
According to a NDTV report, Tejinder Virk, hospitalised in Medanta, said it was unfortunate that even after 72 hours, the man had not been arrested.
"This was a conspiracy to kill us. Ajay Mishra had given a statement that he would not allow farmers in Uttar Pradesh, let alone Lakhimpur. We were protesting against this statement. We were constantly in touch with the police and administration. We were standing along the route to wave black flags at him," said Virk.
Explaining the incident he said further, "We were told at 3 pm that their route has changed. We started going back peacefully. Suddenly, speeding cars hit us from behind. The car was at over 100 km/hour speed. They ran us over on purpose. Ajay Mishra's son and his men were in the car. Then I lost consciousness."
Yesterday, MoS Ajay Mishra's son Ashish refuted all allegations that he was part of the convoy. According to a report, Mishra said, "I was not in the car. I was at my paternal home in Banwirpur village where a wrestling match was being organised. I was there from the morning till the end of the event."
"People who did such things cannot be called farmers. India's farmers are not so heartless and cruel. The fault lies with the people who are leading the farmers' organisation. This is a democracy everyone has the right to have their say and wave their flag but peacefully," he said.
