On October 4, police filed a first information report (FIR) –– numbered 219 –– against the then minister’s son Ashish Mishra and 13 others, charging them under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 427 (mischief), 120B (conspiracy) and Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
On October 3, 2021, a car allegedly owned by former Union minister Ajay Mishra “Teni” ran over five people, triggering violence that killed three more people.
It was based on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sumit Jaiswal. Three others — Ranjeet Singh, Sonu alias Kanwarjeet and Avatar Singh — were cleared. The trial is more than two-thirds through the witness examination stage. Police went to his parents’ house and intimidated them, Bhushan alleged, adding that three other witnesses summoned the next day were given up by the prosecutor.
On the same day, police filed a second FIR –– numbered 220 –– against seven farmers, charging them with murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons, grievous hurt, criminal intimidation and abetment, among other offences. During investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the violence summoned over 50 farmers and arrested seven of them before filing 1,300-page charge sheet in January 2022 against four farmers— Vichitra Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh. In the first FIR, 87 out of 103 witnesses have deposed, including the 20 who turned hostile –– after multiple top court prods. All 14 accused are out on bail. In the second FIR, all 87 witnesses have deposed and final arguments in the trial are set to begin. The initial list in the first FIR had 441 witnesses –– including 208 eyewitnesses, 15 injured people, including police personnel, and 15 doctors who conducted post-mortems –– but it was whittled down to 103. This eyewitness, Sher Singh, submitted an illness slip with a community health centre certificate for April 17, 2026, but the judge issued a non-bailable warrant against him, according to Prashant Bhushan, the lawyer for the victims.
“Now, final arguments will start,” said public prosecutor Sanjay Singh, who is representing the state government in the second trial.
On October 7, 2021, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and sought a status report from the UP government on the investigation, FIRs and arrests.
