The Uttar Pradesh Government announced a single-member enquiry commission to probe the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight people were killed.
The single-member commission will be headed by Retired High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava.
The order was signed by Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi. The commission has been asked to complete the enquiry within two months.
Four farmers were killed in a violent incident where a speeding car driven by the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. And four people from the convoy were killed by the protesting farmers.
The State Government had promised a judicial probe to the families of the four farmers who were mowed down by the vehicle after they refused to cremate the bodies of the farmers and parked them in glass enclosures at the site of the incident in Tikonia.
The Uttar Pradesh Governor said that it is necessary to hold an enquiry in the matter of public importance regarding the incident of death of 8 people in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
“It is necessary to hold an enquiry in the matter of public importance, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Commissions of enquiry Act, 1952, the Governor is pleased to appoint Justice High Court, Allahabad (Retd.) Pradeep Kumar Srivastava as a single-member Commission of enquiry with Headquarters at Lakhimpur Kheri.”
However, the General Secretary of Congress Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court.
“In my view and that of the victim’s families as well, the case should be probed by a sitting Supreme Court Judge or High Court judge and not the retired judge.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. (Congress General Secretary)
It was earlier announced by the Uttar Pradesh Government that a retired High Court Judge would probe the Lakhimpur Kheri case.