Lakhimpur Kheri case: SC cancels Ashish Mishra's bail, directs him to surrender in a week
Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Apr, 2022 10:22 AM
New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident, and directed him to surrender within a week.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the Allahabad High Court to examine afresh whether Mishra should be granted bail or not.
The bench noted that the victims have been denied a chance of effective hearing and the high court overlooked relevant considerations. It further added that the tearing hurry shown by the high court merits the setting aside of bail order and remanded the matter back to high court for fresh consideration. The bench said the high court order cannot be sustained and is thus set aside.
Earlier, the apex court had objected to the high court order giving credence to "irrelevant" details in FIR and post-mortem reports to grant bail to Mishra.
On April 4, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, where eight people lost their lives, was a grave offence, but no untoward incident happened after Ashish Mishra, prime accused in the case was granted bail, and he was also not a flight risk.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the family members of the victims, submitted that the high court failed to consider relevant facts, and the order suffered from gross non-application of mind by the high court. After hearing the detailed arguments in the matter, the top court reserved the order.
Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year in the case. On October 3, 2021, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri in clashes during a farmers' protest. He was granted bail by the high court on February 10.
The family members of the farmers, mowed down by a car belonging to Mishra, in Lakhimpur Kheri had moved the top court challenging bail granted to him. He is the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. The victims' families have claimed that the state has not filed an appeal opposing bail granted to Mishra.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
India on Tuesday recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 per cent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 per cent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 per cent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.
Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
Several Supreme Court advocates on Monday claimed to have received an international call with a recorded message asking the apex court not to help the Central government by taking up a case connected with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are projected to poll 40 per cent and 36 per cent votes in Punjab, respectively, as per the ABP-CVOTER Battle for the States survey. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
