HC grants bail to 12 accused in Lakhimpur Kheri case

While granting bail, a single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Pahal directed all the accused to cooperate in the trial else their bail would be revoked

LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday granted regular bail to 12 accused in the October 3, 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers, a journalist and three BJP workers were killed. Prime accused in the case, Ashish Mishra, son former union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, was already granted regular bail by the Supreme Court in the case earlier this year.

The court had reserved its decision on October 18 after hearing the case and pronounced the order on Tuesday via video conferencing from the Allahabad high court. (File Photo)

While granting bail, a single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Pahal directed all the accused to cooperate in the trial else their bail would be revoked.

Ankit Das, Nandan Singh Bisht, Latif alias Kale, Satyam Tripathi alias Satya Prakash Tripathi, Shekhar Bharti, Dharmendra Singh Banjara, Ashish Pandey, Rinku Rana, Ullas Kumar Trivedi alias Mohit Trivedi, Lavkush, Sumit Jaiswal and Shishupal got bail on separate petitions.

The court had reserved its decision on October 18 after hearing the case and pronounced the order on Tuesday via video conferencing from the Allahabad high court.

In the court, the defence counsel argued that the case involves 114 witnesses, yet only seven had testified so far. He also argued that the Supreme Court had already granted regular bail to prime accused Ashish Mishra.

The state government and the complainant’s counsel opposed the bail petitions.