The special investigation team (SIT) probing the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri massacre of farmers has told a court the crime was “pre-planned” and recommended replacing the charges of death by negligence and rash driving with attempt to murder.

Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni, is among the 13 persons arrested for mowing down four farmers and a journalist when they were returning from a protest. The Thar jeep that crushed the farmers belongs to the Union minister.

The chief judicial magistrate’s court in Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday accepted the SIT’s application. After hearing arguments, chief judicial magistrate Chinta Ram allowed Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 326 (voluntarily causing injuries by dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code to be included in the FIR in which Ashish Mishra is the main accused, senior prosecution officer S.P. Yadav said. Relevant charges under the Arms Act were also allowed to be added.

Sections 279 (rash driving), 338 (causing grievous injuries by negligence) and 304A (causing death by a rash and negligent act) have been dropped from the FIR.

The charges under Sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) have been retained.

“It has (been) proved from the investigation and collection of evidence till time that the act of crime was not an act of negligence but premeditated and pre-planned,” chief investigator of the SIT, Vidyaram Diwakar, said in his application submitted in court.

The application triggered renewed calls to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dismiss Teni.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws that have now been repealed, said the SIT application had vindicated its stand that the killings were a “planned massacre”.

The Morcha said in a statement: “Meanwhile, the chief mastermind of the incident, Ajay Mishra Teni, continues to roam free and hold his position in the Union government. In the light of the latest findings, the SKM demands that the Modi government stop shielding this ‘conspirator of the Kisan Massacre in Lakhimpur Kheri’, and reiterates its demand for his dismissal and arrest.”

The farmers had been returning from a protest against the three farm laws when a VIP convoy led by the Thar hit them from behind and ploughed through them. Days earlier, Teni had from a public stage warned protesting farmers that he would fix them in two minutes.

Teni’s dismissal was one of the six demands of the Morcha that had remained pending after the repeal of the three farm laws. While the Modi government gave an assurance on some of the other demands, following which the year-long siege of Delhi’s borders was lifted, it has so far refused to budge on Teni.

Senior prosecution officer Yadav said earlier on Tuesday: “The chief investigator of the SIT, Vidyaram Diwakar, probing the Tikunia violence, has moved an application in the court of CJM Chinta Ram stating that the probe and the evidence gathered so far had established that the violence leading to the death of five persons and the injuries caused to several others was not an act of negligence or carelessness.”

“The chief investigator stated in his application that the act was a pre-planned conspiracy causing death,” Yadav added.

Legal experts said the removal of the lesser charges eliminates the possibility of the accused being found guilty of only those during the trial in case the murder charge cannot be proved.

A video widely shared on social media shows a vehicle hitting the farmers The Telegraph Picture

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded a probe into Teni’s role and his immediate dismissal from the ministry.

“Since the SIT is saying that this criminal act was premeditated and pre-planned, why should the role of the minister of state for home not be probed? It should also be investigated why the governments of Modiji and Yogi Adityanathji protected him and didn’t conduct an inquiry,” she said in a statement.

The Adityanath government had arrested Ashish six days after the massacre, and only after the case was taken up by the Supreme Court. It formed a nine-member SIT but the apex court expressed discontent with the probe and reconstituted it.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said: “The government is insulting the farmers by protecting Teni.”