Ajay Mishra lunges at journo: ‘Mic band karo be’

New Delhi: In a show of brute aggression, Union Minister of state for home, Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ physically lashed out at journalists and abused them when he was asked about a probe report that recommends new charges against his son Ashish Mishra.

Mishra is under pressure to quit over his jailed son, who is accused of running over and shooting at farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. In the video, the minister is seen lunging at a journalist while raining abuse at the media, and trying to grab his mic, saying

“Don’t ask these stupid questions. Dimag kharaab hai kya be (Are you mad?),” adding “Mic band karo be (shut the mic),” he says. The video shows him raining expletives and calling reporters “chor (thieves)”.

The minister was inaugurating an oxygen plant at Lakhimpur Kheri, where he visited his son in jail yesterday.

Opposition demands for Mr Mishra’s sacking from the Union Cabinet have gathered steam after a Special Investigation Team report said the killing of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 was a “planned conspiracy”. The farmers were crushed, allegedly by an SUV driven by Ashish Mishra, “with intent to commit murder” and it was “not death by negligence”, the report said.