The Supreme Court has established a new Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, in which four farmers and a journalist were allegedly mowed down by the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra Teni’s son Ashish on October 3. After the farmers retaliated, three BJP workers were lynched.
On Thursday afternoon, IPS officers S.B. Shiradkar, Preetinder Singh, and Padmaja Chauhan, as well as retired judge Rakesh Kumar Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who was recently appointed by the Supreme Court to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri violence probe, paid a visit to the crime scene in Tikunia village.
The SIT team inspected the violent hotspot and sketched out a map of the area. The team also paid a visit to Agrasen Inter College, where the farmers first assembled on October 3 for the protest. The SIT team next proceeded to Banbirpur hamlet, which is 4 kilometres away from the scene of the violence.
Later that evening, the SIT members met with all other SIT members, including Upendra Agarwal, DIG, and the former head of the SIT. There was no official statement issued.
The Supreme Court had already expressed its dissatisfaction with the former SIT’s investigation and had appointed three IPS officers to the investigating committee.
