Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Ashish Mishra released from jail

Mishra, who is the main accused in the case and the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, was granted bail on February 10.

Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, walked out of jail on Tuesday, nearly a week after he was granted bail by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court.

Ashish Mishra was granted bail on February 10 (ANI)

Mishra, who is the son of Union minister of state (home) Ajay Mishra ‘Teni,’ was granted bail by the Lucknow bench on February 10. However, his release was delayed as the judge hearing the case inadvertently skipped mentioning Sections 302 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the original order; the two sections were added to the order on February 14, paving the way for Mishra to walk out of prison.

While granting relief, the single-judge bench of Justice Rajeev Singh made several observations, one of which was that ‘possibly, the driver tried to speed up the vehicle to save himself, on account of which, the incident took place.’

Ashish Mishra is accused of driving and deliberately running his SUV into a group of farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3 last year. The ramming of the vehicle resulted in four farmers being killed; in the retaliatory violence, two workers of the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)--to which Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ belongs--and the Union minister's driver were lynched. A local journalist was also killed; his family has alleged that he was run over by one of the cars in the convoy.

The farmers were returning after protesting against deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Ashish Mishra was granted bail on a day when phase one polling for the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh took place, while his release came a day after the second phase. Five more rounds of voting are left, with the last leg scheduled for March 7. Votes for all 403 assembly seats will be counted on March 10.