A five-year-old boy died after allegedly being hit by a car in the motorcade of an Uttar Pradesh minister near Colonelganj in Gonda district. Following the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought a report from the state police chief, and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
One of the cars in Cabinet Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar's cavalcade, while passing through Colonelganj area, on Saturday, 28 October, had allegedly knocked down Shiva Goswami, who died on way to the hospital at night, the police said.
Eyewitnesses and the family members of the boy alleged that no one in the convoy stopped to help the child. His father, Vishwanath, alleged that the minister sped away in one of the cars decorated with garlands.
However, Rajbhar claimed that he was 25 km away, in another car, when the incident occurred.
The boy was playing by the side of a road when he was hit, reportedly by one of the cars in the minister's cavalcade.
Following the incident, angry villagers placed the boy's body on the road demanding action.
The Chief Minister directed the Director General of Police to initiate strict action against those responsible for the incident.
Rajbhar, who heads the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, an ally of the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, is the state Empowerment Minister.
He was in the news three weeks back when a video went viral on social media purportedly showing him warning that parents who fail to send their children to schools would be locked up in police stations without food and water.
In July, Rajbhar had threatened to sit on a dharna if a top official in his home district was not removed.
Recently, another state 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 who later paid him Rs 4,000 for the damage.
Last week, the farmer had alleged that that nearly a dozen vehicles of the minister destroyed his crops in Orai. Jaiki, an MLA of BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) from Jahanabad Assembly constituency in Fatehpur district, however, said there were no standing crops in the field, as the sown mustard seeds were yet to germinate, but still Rs 4,000 was paid to the farmer.
(With inputs from PTI)
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