SC: Judgement on Lakhimpur case accused bail today

New Delhi, April 17: Supreme Court will deliver its judgement tomorrow on the plea of the victims’ family members seeking direction for cancellation of bail to accused, Ashish Mishra, son of Union Min Ajay Mishra Teni, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. The victims’ families sought cancellation of his bail by moving the Supreme Court and they claimed that Uttar Pradesh Government hasn’t supported cancellation of bail in the case against the accused, Ashish Mishra. The Supreme Court had on April 04 reserved the order on a petition seeking cancellation of bail granted to accused, Ashish Mishra, the son of the Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, and a prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violent incident case, which claimed eight lives. A three-judge Special bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, who had reserved the judgement on April 04, Monday, will pass the verdict tomorrow at 1030 hours. The Supreme Court reserved its judgement after hearing a detailed argument from the parties, including that of the petitioner (Victim’s families) Respondent and others. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave appearing for the petitioner, submitted before the Apex court that the Allahabad High Court had made a grave mistake of considering the FIR (First Information Report) when the Chargesheet has been filed. He had also submitted that the Allahabad High Court had emphasized bullet wounds and use of firearms rather than the act of crushing the protestors. Senior Advocate, Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh submitted before the Top court that, “It is a grave offence”. Jethmalani submitted that the accused is not at flight risk and the victims and witnesses are provided security, so there is no possibility for evidence tampering. In October 2021 a major violence broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri district, where four farmers were allegedly mowed down by an SUV when farmers were protesting against the farm laws during Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to the area at that time. The prime accused in the incident Ashish Mishra was granted bail on February 10 by the Allahabad High Court. In November 2021, the Supreme Court had appointed a retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, Rakesh Kumar Jain to monitor the investigation in the case. Uttar Pradesh state Government had recently told the Supreme Court that the state has taken all kinds of efforts to protect the witnesses and families of victims of Lakhimpur Kheri incident case. The Uttar Pradesh Government had told the Supreme Court recently in a detailed affidavit that all the witnesses are also regularly contacted by the police for appraisal of their security conditions. (UNI)