Farmer leaders on Friday visited Lakhimpur Kheri jail and met four peasants imprisoned after last year’s alleged carnage by Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashis, as part of an ongoing Samyukta Kisan Morcha agitation for their release and Teni’s arrest.

The arrested farmers are accused of attacking and lynching three associates of Ashis after the minister’s son allegedly mowed down four farmers and a journalist with his father’s Thar jeep in Tikunia, Lakhimpur Kheri, on October 3 last year.

The Morcha, an umbrella organisation of farmer unions that led the successful yearlong agitation against three now-revoked farm laws, began a three-day dharna in Lakhimpur Kheri town on Thursday seeking the four farmers’ release and the arrest of Teni, Union minister of state for home.

Farmer leaders said the dharna was a rehearsal for a bigger agitation near Delhi, on the same demands, against the “anti-farmer” BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.

On Friday, 10 farmers including Morcha leader Darshan Pal Singh and Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait met the four arrested farmers in the district jail.

“Our brothers have been languishing in jail because they fought with some BJP workers in self-defence. The BJP governments are vindictive because the three party members who died in Tikunia on October 3 were supporters of Teni,” Tikait told reporters at the jail gates.

“They (the arrested farmers) would have got bail by now if the government and the police were fair. We will soon announce plans for an intensified protest against the government.”

Gurvinder Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh are in jail on the charges of murder, rioting and arson, while Vichitra Singh is accused only of rioting. Two other farmers had been arrested but have got bail after the charges against them were dropped.

Ashis and 13 of his associates are lodged in the same jail on charges including murder, conspiracy and rash driving. Ashis faces the additional charges of possessingfirearms and using them illegally.

Over 6,000 farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have gathered at the protest site in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Addressing the farmers on Friday, BKU leader Dilbag Singh said: “Our leaders have said Delhi is not far away. We will again wage war against the anti-farmer BJP governments. We are not going to sit idle till Teni is arrested on the charge of conspiring against the farmers and our brothers are released.”

Social activist Medha Patkar, attending the first two days of the dharna, cited how the Uttar Pradesh government was demolishing purportedly illegal properties of alleged Muslim rioters without court permission.

“The bulldozer has become a court in its own way in Uttar Pradesh. BJP governments become violent when in power,” she said.

“We need to sharpen the protest against the Narendra Modi government, which has proved very bad for farmers,” she added.

Patkar accused the government of “running a scam in the name of farmers”.

“Insurance companies earned Rs 40,000 crore last year from the crop insurance schemes launched by the government for farmers…. The farmers were cheated as they didn’t get anything,” Patkar said.

Flip-flop

Ahmedabad: Godhra MLA C.K. Raulji has said he believes rapists do not have any caste and the guilty should be punished, PTI reported.

The BJP MLA tweeted the statement a day after he told Mojo Story that some of the freed convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were “Brahmins” with good sanskar.

Raulji was on the state government panel that recommended remission to the 11 convicts.

On Friday, Raulji tweeted: “Rapists do not belong to any caste, and I have not said anything like that. My statement is being shown in a wrong way. If someone is guilty, he should get punishment for it. We should respect the court’s verdict.”