LUCKNOW: AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Monday demanded that Ajay Kumar Mishra should immediately be removed as the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs to ensure that an impartial probe is conducted into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
The AAP leader also said that he was stopped by police in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur when he was en route to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the family members of farmers killed in the district on Sunday.
Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister.
They were allegedly thrashed to death. The four others were farmers, officials said.
Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister's son Ashsish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM's visit.
However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it Singh also demanded that a court-monitored probe by a special investigation team (SIT) should be conducted into the incident of violence.
The dependents of each of the farmers, killed in the violence, should be given a compensation of Rs one crore and those injured in the incident should also be given "a fair compensation", he told PTI.
Singh also demanded that the Union government must withdraw the three "black farm laws" against which farmers have been protesting for the last 10 months.
How can an impartial probe be conducted in the matter when the accused's father, under whom the CBI and the police come, continues to remain in his post.
"Ajay Kumar Mishra should immediately be removed as Union Minister of State for Home Affairs to ensure an impartial probe into the case," Singh said.
"Besides, there should be a court-monitored SIT probe into the entire episode," he added, The AAP leader said he was stopped by the police and the local administration at Biswan in Sitapur around 2.30 am while he was going to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the family members of the farmers killed in the violence and pay his condolences.
Singh is still at the spot and has refused to step back.
"This is a dictatorship. How unfortunate it is that a parliamentarian cannot meet the family members of the farmers who died in the violence and pay condolences. I am not going to move from here. I will stay here," Singh said.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia trained guns at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after police stopped Singh while he was en route to Lakhimpur Kheri, saying tears of the family members of the farmers killed in the Lakhimpur violence will weigh heavy on him.
"Farmers were killed, and MP Sanjay Singh, who was on his way to meet the family members of those farmers and pay his condolences, has been kept halted on the roadside since late last night," Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.
"Yogiji, tears of the family members of the farmers will weigh heavy on you," he added.
Singh had earlier shared a couple of video clips in which he is seen asking the cops why he was being prevented from visiting Lakhimpur Kheri.
"Why have you stopped me? Show me the arrest order, I will come to the police station. I am going to pay my condolences. Under which law is it a crime? Just tell me why have you stopped a parliamentarian? Do you have any orders," Singh can be heard asking police officials in one of the videos that he shared on Twitter.