Boy dies after being run over by UP minister's convoy; Yogi orders probe

Lucknow: A five-year-old boy was killed when the convoy of Uttar Pradesh minister Om Prakash Rajbhar mowed down the child in Gonda district on Saturday.

The minister’s convoy reportedly fled the spot immediately after the accident.  But, the minister said that he was in another car, 25 kilometres away, when the accident took place.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a report on the alleged incident and also announced a compensation of `five lakhs for the victim’s family. Mr Yogi has asked the DGP to submit a report on the same.

The incident came to fore on Saturday night when the chief minister’s office issued a statement announcing the compensation.

According to reports, the minister was on his way to attend a function in Gonda, when his vehicle hit Shiva who was playing on a pavement.  His mother and grandmother were near the child. The boy died on the spot.

Following the incident, angry villagers placed the boy’s body on the road demanding action. Later, the police pacified the crowd to lift the blockade.

Vishwanath, the boy’s father on Sunday said that he has registered an FIR in the matter.

Gonda district magistrate J.B. Singh said that a case of rash and negligent driving had been registered against unknown people.

“The police will investigate the manner and take necessary action”, he said. Om Prakash Rajbhar heads the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, an ally of the BJP and is a minister in the UP government.  

Meanwhile, opposition parties targeted the Adityanath government and Mr Rajbhar over the incident.

SP leader Juhi Singh raised questions as to why nobody had the decency to stop and take care of the injured boy. “We demand his (Mr Rajbhar’s) resignation. Otherwise, the chief minister should take action,” she said. He was in the news earlier this month when he announced that parents who do not send their children to school would be locked up in police stations without food and water.

Two months ago, he had threatened to stage a dharna against the state government if the district magistrate of Ghazipur was not transferred.

Recently, another UP minister, Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki, was in the news when a farmer in Jalaun district claimed that his crop was allegedly trampled by the convoy of the minister.

The farmer had alleged that last week nearly a dozen vehicles of the minister destroyed his crops in Orai.