NEW DELHI: Taking
up the
violence
and deaths in Lakhimpur
Kheri
, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the UP government to furnish information on action taken by it in the aftermath of the incident that claimed lives and on how many people have been booked and arrested in the case.
A bench of Chief Justice
N V Ramana
and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the state government for a status
report
by Friday after UP additional advocate general Garima Prashad informed the court that the state had already appointed a Special Investigation Team to conduct a probe as well as a judicial commission of inquiry headed by a retired Allahabad high court judge.
Recording the statement of the state government, the bench also asked it to inform how many people have been named in the relevant FIR and how many were arrested so far. The court said it will first go through the response of the state government before proceeding in the case which has been initiated on the letters written by two Supreme Court advocates in which they brought the incident to court’s notice.
Eight people were killed in the violence on Sunday. Of them, four were farmers who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles allegedly driven by BJP workers, some of whom were beaten to death by the agitated farmers. Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish was alleged to be in the vehicles or driving one of them.
During the course of hearing, the court was informed that the mother of one of the victims Lovepreet Singh was in critical condition, due to the shock of the loss of her son, and an oral prayer was made to provide her best medical treatment. Accepting the plea, the bench passed the order and said, “In view of the above, we direct the additional advocate general to look into the matter personally and provide best medical treatment to the mother of the deceased in a reputed government medical college/hospital in UP.”
The bench during the hearing clarified that the apex court did not take suo motu cognisance of Lakhimpur Kheri violence as had been reflected in the Supreme Court cause list.