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The son of an Indian minister has been arrested on preliminary charges of murder, police said Sunday, a week after the death of eight people during a farmers’ protest sparked national outrage.
Ashish Mishra was detained in Uttar Pradesh late Saturday over the incident in the northern state’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, where farmers were demonstrating as part of their year-long campaign against contentious agriculture laws.
Farmers claimed that a convoy belonging to Mishra and his father -- the junior home affairs minister Ajay Mishra -- slammed into protesters, killing four of them.
Angry demonstrators then set fire to several cars and four other people, including a driver and a journalist, were killed, according to authorities and local media reports.
Mishra was arrested on grounds of “non-cooperation” and “evasive replies” during an hours-long interrogation, Deputy Inspector General of Police Upendra Kumar Agrawal told reporters.
