The smell of blood pervades conversations in this dusty township that is marked with pot-holed roads and makeshift tea-stalls.
Political overtones of criminal activities are hotly debated and there is a growing anger against the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party.
In the past one decade, Lakhimpur — that lies about 135 km north of Lucknow — has grabbed headlines for three sensational murders, all of which were committed during the BSP regimes.
Poetess Madhumita Shukla, who belonged to Lakhimpur, was shot dead in May 2003. Then BSP minister Amar Mani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani have been convicted for the murder.
In June 2011, 14-year-old Sonam was allegedly raped and strangulated inside Nighasan police station in Lakhimpur and her body was tied to a tree stump in order to make it seem a case of suicide.
The teen murder led to outrage in the area. A CBI probe was later ordered into the murder and investigations are still underway.
In February this year, Lakhimpur was back in news after the 6th NRHM scam murder of Mahendra Sharma a clerk in the health department. Though the post-mortem established that Sharma had been smothered to death, the Lakhimpur police tried to pass it off as suicide. A CBI inquiry has now been recommended into the murder.
“It is always in the BSP regime that sensational crime takes place because the police enjoy political patronage. Crime against women is on the rise and for every one case that gets reported, there are at least two that go unreported. The district is now more famous for such crimes than it is for the Dudhwa National Park,” says Vaishali Ali, a social activist.
Shraddha Tiwari, a friend of the slain poetess Madhumita Shukla, said, “The police has emerged as the biggest criminal in recent times and one can only blame the ruling party for it. Whether it was the rape and murder of Sonam or that of Mahendra Sharma, the police shows more interest in covering up the case than investigating it. People have lost faith in the police.” The city is beset with problems of the usual kind — erratic power supply, potholed roads, lack of infrastructure and unemployment.