Lakhimpur Kheri case: SC to hear plea against bail to Union Minister's son on March 15

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to take up on March 15 a plea challenging the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, the prime accused and son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni in a case related to mowing down of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who filed the petition against the Allahabad High Court's order on bail, orally mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana, for urgent hearing, alleging one of the witnesses was attacked on Thursday night.

The CJI said that the matter would be heard on Tuesday, March 15.

Also Read | Lakhimpur Kheri: Family members of deceased move SC against bail to Mishra

Earlier, on March 4, on a mention by Bhushan on behalf of the victim's families, the court had directed for taking up the case on March 11 but the matter was not listed on Friday.

The CJI had then said the same combination of the bench, which had earlier dealt with the matter, has to be available to consider the case.

A special leave petition filed on behalf of the victims contended that the High Court's February 10 order on bail to Mishra was "perverse" and "unsustainable in eyes of law" as there has been no meaningful and effective assistance by the State to the court in the matter.

Also Read — Ashish Mishra's bail in Lakhimpur violence case challenged in Supreme Court

The petitioners led by Jagjeet Singh said, in their plea, said that they approached the top court as the State of Uttar Pradesh where the political party of the accused and his father is in power has failed to file an appeal against the order.

They contended that the High Court made an "improper and arbitrary exercise of the discretion" in the grant of bail.

The High Court failed to consider the heinous nature of the crime; the character of the overwhelming evidence; position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and witnesses; the likelihood of him fleeing from justice and repeating the offence; and the possibility of him tampering with the witnesses and obstructing the course of justice, their plea said.

"Even the victims were prevented from bringing the relevant material to notice of High Court as their counsel ‘got’ disconnected from the hearing on January 18, 2022, and repeated calls to the court staff to get reconnected were to no avail and the application filed by them for effective hearings was rejected," it claimed.

Also Read — Will put Lakhimpur Kheri accused back in jail: Akhilesh

Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year in a case related to the October 3 incident. As many as eight people, including four farmers, were killed, when a car allegedly ferrying the Union Minister's son ran over a group of protesters, gathered to oppose a programme attended by Uttar Pradesh's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Lakhimpur Kheri. The farmers were then demanding the repeal of three controversial farm laws.

Earlier, last month, an application for cancelling Mishra's bail was filed by advocates C S Panda and Shiv Kumar Tripathi, who had approached the top court last year, leading to the setting up of the SIT headed by Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

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