Lakhimpur violence: HC reserves order on bail plea of minister’s son

LUCKNOW The Allahabad high court on Tuesday reserved its order on the bail plea of Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

Ashish Mishra is the prime accused in the October 3 violence case.

The Lucknow bench of the court reserved its order on Mishra’s plea after concluding the hearing through video-conferencing.

The counsel appearing on behalf of Mishra told the court that his client was innocent and there was no evidence against him that he incited the driver of a vehicle to crush the farmers.

Opposing the plea, additional advocate general VK Shahi said at the time of the incident, Mishra was in the car that crushed the farmers under its wheels.

After hearing the pleas, the bench of Justice Rajeev Singh reserved its order.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state government was probing the case and had arrested 13 people involved in the incident.

The incident took place on October 3 last year in Lakhimpur Kheri where a speeding four-wheeler had mowed down four farmers and a local journalist.

The local court in Lakhimpur Kheri had rejected bail applications of all the accused in the case.

Now, seven accused have filed a bail application in the court of district judge, Lakhimpur Kheri, Mukesh Mishra. It will come up for hearing on January 20.

The district judge asked the prosecution to present case diary of the incident, chargesheet and criminal history of all the accused in court. Input from PTI