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 emphasised on 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 a flight risk and the victims and witnesses are provided securities, 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. Uttar Pradesh Government had also told the Supreme Court that it had opposed the bail plea of Ashish Mishra before the Allahabad High Court, and the submission of the petition before the Supreme Court by the family members, who alleged that that the State did not effectively oppose the bail application of the accused, Ashish Mishra, is completely untrue. Advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the victims family members had told the Supreme Court that the main witness was allegedly “brutally” attacked and threatened that he would be taken care of as the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has won Assembly polls in the recently concluded state elections in Uttar Pradesh. The family members of the deceased farmers, who were allegedly mowed down by a car belonging to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son, Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri have knocked the doors of the Supreme Court on February 21, challenging the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Mishra. The plea was filed through lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, before the Supreme Court and in the petition, they said the family members have been forced to approach the Top court, since the State of Uttar Pradesh has failed to file the appeal against the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to Ashish Mishra.
