BKU's office-bearer, key witness in Tikunia violence case, escapes attempt on his life

|HT|

A Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) office-bearer, who is a key witness in the Tikunia violence case, escaped an attempt on his life late on Tuesday. Police said two unidentified armed men on a bike intercepted the SUV of Dilbag Singh, district president of BKU’s Lakhimpur Kheri unit and fired at it. The incident took place on Aliganj-Muda Sawaran Road under Gola police station limits at around 9 pm on Tuesday night.

Singh said his police guard was on leave at the time of the attack. He said the attackers fired at his SUV, puncturing a tyre. Three bullets hit the SUV and the assailants also attempted to open the car window. “After firing multiple shots on the vehicle, the assailants fled,” he said.

Singh said he had lodged a police complaint and investigators visited the scene besides talking to him. He added that he also informed BKU leader Rakesh Tikait (who was attacked with a microphone before ink was thrown at him at a press meet in Bengaluru on Monday) about the attack. Additional police superintendent Arun Kumar Singh said Gola police registered a first information report under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) against unidentified assailants, on Singh’s complaint. “Police visited the spot after the attack and talked to Dilbag Singh to record his statement about the attack.” He added that forensic teams were rushed to the spot to examine the SUV and the crime scene. “Investigation and efforts to identify the attackers are on,” he said, adding the police were not informed that the farmer leader’s guard was on leave. “If this had been brought to our notice, another gunman would have been provided,” he said.

Lakhimpur Kheri superintendent of police (SP) Sanjeev Suman said the statements of two people Chhotu and Jitendra Verma, whom the complainant had dropped a few minutes before the incident, were contradictory. He said he himself questioned the two and they said that the complainant had talked to them about the plan of an attack on him around two months ago, as he was facing difficulty in getting fire-arms license. He said this point would also be investigated in detail. He said the complaint had stated that there were two assailants who fired at least three bullets on him. Forensic team from Lucknow was called on the spot to examine the SUV on which shots had been fired and the ballistic report was likely to be available Thursday. Besides, the police were scanning CCTV footages available as several contradictory things had surfaced during investigation so far, he added.

To recall, Union minister of state Ajay Kumar Mishra (Teni)’s son, Ashish Mishra, is the main accused in one of the cases related to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. On October 3, 2021, a car allegedly belonging to the Mishras ran over four farmers and a journalist at a protest against the farm laws. In the violence that followed, three people were killed. Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9 in connection with the death of the farmers and granted bail in February before the Supreme Court cancelled it. Another key witness of the incident Hardeep Singh had accused a local BJP leader and some others of attacking and threatening him in Rampur district on April 10 earlier this year. He had lodged an FIR against former BJP district general secretary Meher Singh Deol, one Siravjeet Singh Ghumman and three other unidentified people for attacking and threatening him when he was returning from a Gurudwara at around 7 pm under Bilaspur police station limits of Rampur.

The police officials had then said it seemed to be a case of road rage and had nothing to do with Lakhimpur violence case. The police investigation is still under way.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)