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.
Most of these farmers had earlier stated that they were present at the spot but were not involved in the attack. They were, at that time, charged under bailable sections such as 'rioting' and 'voluntarily causing hurt' and were let off by the SIT officials under Section 41 of the CrPC.
The Congress is witnessing internal bickering on the issue of security breach of the Prime Minister and Congress MP from Punjab Manish Tewari has termed the incidence as most unfortunate and said the matter should be probed by a sitting High Court Judge.
Addressing a gathering in Tanda in Hoshiarpur district after laying the foundation stone of development work, the Chief Minister said there was no threat to the life of the Prime Minister but he cancelled his programme on Wednesday because of the thin presence of people at the BJP's rally.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
