Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday demanded a judicial inquiry under a sitting judge, into the death of eight persons, including four farmers, in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh.
Hooda, who is also the former chief minister of Haryana, urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to take "stringent and immediate" action against those police personnel who allegedly "manhandled" Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party leader Deepender Singh Hooda when they were on their way to meet the kin of the victims in Lakhimpur Kheri.
"The way farmers have been crushed under the car inhumanly is not accepted in a democracy. In a democracy, everybody has a right to protest. There should be a judicial inquiry under a sitting judge. Justice should be served to the victims. The right amount of compensation should also be given. After the judicial inquiry everything will be clear," Hooda said while addressing the media here.
Condemning the behaviour of the Uttar Pradesh police towards the two Congress leaders, he remarked that "no state has a right to become a police state."
"The way the police behaved with Priyanka Gandhi and Deepender Hooda, who were on the way to meet the victims' families, state Chief Minister should take immediate action against the police personnel involved. Nobody has the right to touch the MP or Priyanka ji. If you want to arrest someone under the law then you may but you cannot push anybody. It should not become a police state," said the Congress leader.
The Uttar Pradesh government denied permission for Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bagel's plane to land at the Lucknow airport today, who was heading to the state to meet victims' families. Among others who were prevented from going to Lakhimpur Kheri included Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder S Randhawa. Police took Yadav into custody outside his residence where he staged a sit-in protest after being stopped from going to Lakhimpur.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of several farmer unions, issued a statement on Sunday regarding the incident claiming the death of four farmers and alleged that one of the four farmers was shot dead by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's son--Ashish Mishra, while the others have been allegedly run over by the vehicles of his convoy.
However, both the Union Minister and his son have refuted SKM's allegations.
"I was at Banwaripur from 9 am till the end of the event. Allegations against me are completely baseless and I demand judicial inquiry of this matter and culprits should get punished," Ashish Mishra had said.
Meanwhile, Bhupinder Singh Hooda slammed Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for his remarks of using 'tit for tat' methodology against the protesting farmers and urging BJP's Kisan Morcha to 'pick up sticks' and said, "Person sitting in a responsible post should not speak like this. He himself is using provocative notes. He should take back his words."
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor