Lakhimpur Kheri: Apex court to hear plea challenging bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 11 a plea challenging the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra.

Ashish Mishra was involved in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that left eight people, including four farmers dead on October 3 last year. A viral video purported to show the accused mowing down protesting farmers with his SUV, which prompted retaliatory violence which left Mishra’s driver, two BJP workers and a journalist dead.

The plea for cancellation of Mishra’s bail has been filed by farmers, Jagjeet Singh, Pawan Kashyap, and Sukhwinder Singh, through lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana took note of the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the other accused are moving courts for bail, citing the relief granted to Mishra and asked him to intimate the high court that the top court is hearing the plea for cancellation of bail. “I can list on March 11 only. Other judges have to be available,” the CJI said.

A single-judge bench of the high court, on February 10, had granted bail to Mishra who had spent four months in custody. Bhushan sought a direction to the high court that for the time being, the bail plea of other accused be not considered. “File a memo before the high court that we are hearing on March 11,” the bench said. Three family members of farmers, who were killed in the violence also sought a stay on the bail order. Recently, another plea seeking cancellation of bail of accused was also filed.

“The 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.

Seeking “stay of the impugned bail order”, the plea narrated the sequence of evidence and said: “The act of deliberately crushing the peacefully returning farmers by the Thar vehicle on the instructions of the accused from the back was not an act of negligence but a conspiracy as the accused thereafter from the farms circled back to the place of the ‘dangal’ event at around 4:00 pm and acted as if nothing had happened”. It added that the court hadn’t considered the “overwhelming evidence” against the accused.