Ashish Mishra, the son of Junior Home Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, has refuted accusations that he ran over protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. Ashish said he was at his paternal home when the incident happened. Eight people were killed as farmers protested the visit of Ajay Kumar Mishra to Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday, October 3. Ashish is among several people booked by the police in connection with the violence. The police has registered two First Information Reports (FIRs) in the incident.

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Farmer unions allege that Ashish was driving the car that mowed down four protesters.

However, Ashish said he was not in the car. “I was at my paternal home in Banwirpur village where a wrestling match was being organised. I was there from the morning till the end of the event,” he told NDTV.

Ajay Mishra was en route to his paternal village in Lakhimpur Kheri’s Tikunia for an event which was due to be presided over by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

“The programme that was happening was an ancestral one. It has been going on for around 35 years… We have a tradition that when we have guests, we send two-three vehicles to receive them… the Mahindra Thar was my vehicle, one of our workers had a Toyota Fortuner and there was a smaller car,” he told NDTV in an interview.

Farmers on Monday called off their protest in Lakhimpur Kheri after assurances of a fair probe into the deaths. The farmers also agreed to cremate the dead after the government announced Rs 45 lakh compensation to the families of those who died and Rs 10 lakh for those injured.

Ajay Mishra has also denied the accusations and said his driver and three members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party were beaten to death by the protesters. He claimed the four protesters died after his car overturned following an attack on it by miscreants.