A DELEGATION of Congress leaders, including former party President Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday met President Ram Nath Kovind demanding the immediate dismissal of Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, and an impartial judicial probe by two sitting judges of the Supreme Court. Delegation of senior Congress leaders also presented a memorandum of facts about the Lakhimpur Kheri incident to the President. Four farmers were among eight people killed in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri. Gandhi told reporters after the meeting that he conveyed to the President that the MoS Home should resign to ensure an impartial probe in the Lakhimpur violence as his son Ashish is an accused in the matter. Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday by the Uttar Pradesh Police. Gandhi demanded that to ensure justice, two sitting Supreme Court judges should probe the incident and those who have committed the murders should be punished.

 

“There cannot be an impartial inquiry and justice cannot be given till the time the MoS Home is sacked. This is the voice of not just the families of those killed but of all the farmers and this voice is being suppressed,” he said. The Congress delegation included A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Asked whether they have received any assurances from the President, Priyanka Gandhi claimed, “he (President) has assured us that he will talk to the Government in this regard today itself”.