Families of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri move SC against bail to minister's son Ashish Mishra

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 21

Family members of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court granting bail to prime accused and Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra.

The families said they had filed the petition “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 impugned order”.

Kin’s plea

• HC granted bail without considering ‘heinous nature of the crime’
• The overwhelming evidence against the accused, Ashish Mishra, in chargesheet ‘ignored’
• The position & status of the accused with reference to victims and witnesses ‘not kept in mind’
• There’s likelihood of the accused ‘fleeing and repeating’ offence
• The possibility of his ‘tampering with proof and obstructing course of justice’ not ruled out

Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in Lakhimpur when those against farm laws were holding a protest against UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit on October 3, 2021. Two BJP workers and a driver were beaten to death allegedly by angry protesters. A local journalist was also killed. This is the second petition challenging the February 10 order of the Allahabad High Court releasing Ashish Mishra on bail. Earlier, advocates Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda had filed a plea in the top court on February 17 challenging the HC order. The bail order has “manifest error” as the High Court has rested its reasoning on “presumption and guesswork” using the word “might” to arrive at a conclusion that the said crime culminated in a possibility of the driver trying to speed up the vehicle to save himself, they had submitted.

The petition by family members of the deceased farmers termed the bail as “an improper and arbitrary exercise of the discretion”. They said the grant of bail was contrary to settled law as the High Court granted bail without considering “the heinous nature of the crime; the character of the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the chargesheet; position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and witnesses; the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and repeating the offence; and the possibility of his tampering with the witnesses and obstructing the course of justice”. The top court had on November 17 last year appointed Punjab and Haryana High Court’s retired judge Rakesh Kumar Jain to monitor the probe into the case “to assure full and complete justice to the victims of crime” and “to ensure transparency, fairness and absolute impartiality in the outcome of the investigation… which is to be conducted in a time-bound manner”.

It had reconstituted the UP Government-appointed SIT by adding three senior IPS officers SB Shiradkar, Padmaja Chauhan and Preetinder Singh.

Second petition

This is the second petition challenging the February 10 Allahabad High Court order releasing Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish.

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