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SC to hear plea against bail to Lakhimpur violence accused Ashish Mishra on Friday
Mishra is the son of Union minister of state (home) Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Teni’ and is the main accused in the incident of October last year when eight people including four farmers were mowed down by a cavalcade of cars, one of which belonged to Mishra.
The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea challenging the bail granted to Ashish Mishra by the Allahabad high court last month in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Mishra is the son of Union minister of state (home) Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Teni’ and is the main accused in the incident of October last year when eight persons including four farmers were mowed down by a cavalcade of cars, one of which belonged to Mishra. The high court had granted him bail on February 10 and the families of three of the victims approached the top court challenging the order.
With almost two weeks gone since the appeal being filed and no hearing in sight, the matter was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the victims’ kin. Bhushan told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) that the matter required urgent consideration as the high court was granting bail to other accused on basis of the bail granted to Mishra.
CJI told Bhushan that the matter could only be listed on March 11 as the other judge who is part of the bench presided by CJI which is hearing the suo moto petition on the Lakhimpur violence case is available only on that day.
Meanwhile, Bhushan urged the top court to observe that the high court should not follow the order granting bail to Mishra. The bench, also comprising justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli said, “You file a memo before the high court informing them that we will be taking up this matter on March 11.”
The three petitioners - Jagjeet Singh, Pawan Kashyap and Sukhwinder Singh – urged the top court to set aside the bail order as it did not consider the heinous nature of 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 the witnesses.
The petition filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan said, “Lack of any discussion in the high court’s order as regards the settled principles for grant of bail is on account of lack of any substantive submissions to this effect by the state as the accused wields substantial influence over the state government as his father is a Union Minister from the same political party that rules the state.”
They further complained that even the victims could not place the relevant material before the high court as their counsel got “disconnected” on the virtual platform when the case was taken up. It also referred to portions from the bail order where the judge said, “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, the victims’ kin termed as “far-fetched imaginary possibilities” as evidence as recorded in the charge sheet is to the contrary showing that the vehicles had been dashing at high speeds of 70-100 km/hr as they approached the scene of crime.
The incident took place on October 3 last year. According to the police report, Mishra came in a Thar SUV along with a convoy of three-four cars and mowed down protesting farmers opposing the now-repealed farm laws. They had gathered to protest the arrival of UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya at a function near the crime spot. Four farmers died in the incident as angry farmers, in retaliation pulled out three occupants from the vehicles and thrashed them, resulting in their death. Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9.
Prior to the appeal by victims, Mishra’s bail was challenged in the top court by two lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court – Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda. They moved an application in the suo moto case being heard by the top court and questioned the slow progress in the investigation of the matter by a special investigation team constituted by the Supreme Court.
In November last year, the Court had formed the SIT to carry out further probe and appointed a retired judge of the Punjab & Haryana high court – justice (retired) Rakesh Jain – to monitor the probe.
