Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav detained over bid to visit Lakhimpur Kheri

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati claimed that the party’s national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Satish Chandra Misra has also been put under house arrest.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was detained by the police in Lucknow on Sunday over staging protests outside his residence for not being allowed to visit Lakhimpur Kheri where eight people, including four farmers, were killed on Sunday. Shivpal Yadav, the head of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, was also detained while he was on his way to the violence-hit district.

A police vehicle was also set ablaze near the Gautampalli Police Station in Lucknow which is just a few hundred metres from where Akhilesh was organising the protest. While no senior police official was available for a comment, sources confirmed that the identity of the people who set the vehicle on fire is yet to be confirmed.

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Heavy police bandobast was seen since morning outside the SP chief’s house as the entire Vikramaditya Marg was blockaded using barricades to stop Akhilesh from leaving the area.

Section 144 remains in place in Lakhimpur Kheri where four farmers were among eight persons killed after a convoy of three SUVs, including one owned by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, hit a group of farm protesters leading to a clash.

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Earlier in the day, when Akhilesh Yadav tried to leave Lucknow to take stock of the situation in the violence-hit areas, he was stopped by the security forces. As such, Akhilesh organised a sit-in protest right outside his residence.

In a series of posts on its official Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Samajwadi Party wrote in Hindi: “On the orders of this arrogant government, the police have held our national president who was on his way to Lakhimpur Kheri. All the Samajwadis should sit on dharna wherever they are.”

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati claimed that the party’s national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Satish Chandra Misra has also been put under house arrest so that he cannot lead a party delegation to the area.

“Due to the involvement of two BJP ministers in the sad Kheri case of UP, proper government investigation of this incident and justice to the victims and strict punishment for the guilty does not seem possible. Therefore, this incident, in which 8 people have been confirmed dead so far, requires a judicial inquiry, the demand of BSP,” she wrote on Twitter.

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