LUCKNOW: Former Union minister and BJP leader Ajay Mishra Teni, his son Ashish Mishra and two others were booked for allegedly intimidating a witness in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
This comes after the Supreme Court had pulled up the UP police in August for failing to look into the witness’s complaint that he was threatened.
Four farmers and a journalist were killed after a Mahindra Thar, owned by Ashish Mishra, ran over them during the protests against the Central government’s farm laws. In the ensuing violence, two BJP leaders and the Thar driver were also killed.
Ashish Mishra, son of Ajay Mishra Teni, is currently out on bail. He is the prime accused in the case. The case against Ajay Mishra, Ashish Mishra, one Amandeep Singh and an unidentified person was filed at Paduwa police station in Lakhimpur Kheri on Saturday under Sections 195-A (threatening any person to give false evidence), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (invoked retrospectively).
Teni was a BJP MP from Lakhimpur Kheri till 2024 when he lost the last Lok Sabha election to Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma. Meanwhile, as per Lakhimpur Kheri Superintendent of Police (SP) Sankalp Sharma, a probe is going on into the matter.
Complainant witness Baljinder Singh had claimed that he was among the protesting farmers injured after being hit by a vehicle. Both the police and a magistrate had recorded his statement.
He had alleged that Amandeep Singh and another man, allegedly close to Ajay Mishra, came to his house on August 16, 2023, before he left to depose in court, and pressured him not to testify and offered him money besides issuing threats.
Baljinder Singh had also claimed to have recorded the conversation with the two men on his phone. Following the incident, he, along with his family relocated to live in his in-laws’ house after leasing out his entire village land out of fear, Baljinder had said.
Two cross-FIRs were registered in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case at the Tikonia police station and the trial in both cases is on.