E-Paper
Lakhimpur Kheri: SC to hear plea against Ashish Mishra’s bail on Tuesday
The petitioners feared that the witnesses in the case would be intimidated as the accused was influential. They submitted in their plea that the bail order did not consider the heinous nature of the crime, the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge sheet and the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice.
The Supreme Court will take up on March 15 a plea challenging the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, in the incident of violence in Lakhimpur Kheri last year.
The plea was filed by the families of three of the victims who were mowed down by a convoy of cars during a farmers’ protest against the now-repealed farm laws. In all, four persons were crushed under the wheels and in subsequent violence, a journalist and three others were killed. One of the cars in the convoy belonged to Mishra.
Having agreed to hear the petition of the victims on Friday, advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana that there is some urgency as a witness in the case was attacked last night. Bhushan pointed out that despite the Court’s direction to list the matter on Friday (March 11), the matter was not listed.
The CJI, sitting along with justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said, “It will come up next Tuesday. The Registry has been directed to list the matter.”
Bhushan appeared for petitioners Jagjeet Singh, Pawan Kashyap and Sukhwinder Singh – the kin of three of the victims who died in the violence. In their petition, the petitioners objected to the order of the Allahabad high court granting bail to Ashish Mishra on February 10.
The incident took place on October 3 and within a week, Mishra was arrested. The petitioners feared that the witnesses in the case would be intimidated as the accused was influential. They submitted in their plea that the bail order did not consider the heinous nature of the crime, the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge sheet, the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice, and the possibility of his tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses. It also questioned the inferences drawn by the high court by saying, “There might be a possibility that the driver tried to speed up the vehicle to save himself, on account of which, the incident had taken place.”
This was not borne out from records, the petitioners alleged as the charge sheet said that the cars involved in the incident were driven at speed of 70-100 kmph as it approached the protesting farmers.
In November last year, the top court had formed a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out a probe into the violence and appointed a retired judge of the Punjab & Haryana high court – justice (retired) Rakesh Jain – to monitor the investigation. A bench led by CJI Ramana had taken suo moto cognizance of the incident in October last year and the victims’ plea will also be listed before the same bench.
