Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, was on Friday remanded in police custody for two days in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. This is the second time that Ashish was remanded in police custody by Lakhimpur Kheri's Chief Judicial Magistrate Chinta Ram. With fresh evidence emerging during its investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri case, the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday sought three-day police custody of Ashish, a prime accused, and three others. The request came after the SIT identified drivers and several occupants of the three SUVs, which ran over protesting farmers on the day of the incident, killing four of them and a journalist. Three others were killed in the subsequent violence. According to SIT’s request, the other three accused in the case - Ankit Das, Shekhar Bharti and Latif- have also been sent to police custody. The two-day police remand for Mishra and the other three will end at 5 pm on Sunday. Following his arrest on October 9, Ashish was placed in police remand for the first time on October 11 for a period of three days - starting October 12 and ending on October 15 - even though the police had requested 14 days of remand for him in police custody. Mishra was sent back to the Lakhimpur Jail under judicial custody after the expiry of his first remand period.
