Uttar Pradesh : In Lakhimpur Kheri matter Supreme Court will hear on March 16 the petition against the bail of accused Ashish Mishra
The Supreme Court will now hear on March 16 the petition filed against the bail of Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. Chief Justice N. A bench headed by V. Raman on Tuesday directed that the matter be listed for March 16, saying the special leave petition would be heard tomorrow. The apex court had on March 11 said that the petition would be heard before the appropriate bench on March 15, but Justice Surya Kant, who was part of the bench which has heard other petitions related to the matter, was not available today.
The petitioners- Prashant Bhushan, the counsel for the relatives of the deceased farmers, appealed for early hearing, calling the petition very urgent. Earlier, he had also requested for an early hearing on March 11 and 4. Bhushan told the apex court that a witness in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case in Uttar Pradesh was attacked there last Thursday night. He alleged that threats are being made from the accused that now his party is back in power in the state.
Bhushan said that in such a situation a new challenge has arisen for the witnesses and the petitioners. Apart from the main accused Ashish, other accused are also trying to get bail in the Allahabad High Court. Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on February 10. Bhushan, on behalf of the family members of the farmers, filed a petition in the apex court against the High Court’s decision, seeking cancellation of Ashish’s bail. On March 4, Bhushan had also sought an early hearing. A bench headed by the Chief Justice then directed the matter to be heard before an appropriate bench on March 11, but the petition was not listed on that day.
The Chief Justice had also said on March 4 that the same bench hearing the matter should be available for consideration of the petition. Advocate Bhushan, who was leading the kin of the deceased farmers, filed a special leave petition in February on behalf of Jagjit Singh. The petitioner has termed the Allahabad High Court’s grant of bail to Ashish as ignoring the legal process and justice. A few days before Bhushan, advocates CS Panda and Shiv Kumar Tripathi also filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against Ashish’s bail.
On October 3 last year, four farmers were allegedly crushed to death by Ashish’s car at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh. In the violence that erupted after this, apart from two BJP workers, the car driver and a journalist died. Advocates Panda and Tripathi had approached the top court last year with a PIL in the incident. Then the court, after hearing the arguments of the parties concerned, constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to probe the entire matter.
The special leave petition filed by the family members of the farmers said that the High Court in its February 10 order had exercised undue and arbitrary discretion in granting bail to Ashish. The petition filed by the kin of the farmers claimed that they were prevented from bringing several important documents to the notice of the High Court. His lawyer was disconnected from the virtual hearing on 18 January 2022 due to technical reasons and repeated calls were made to the court staff in this regard but the call could not be connected. Thus the petition of the relatives of the deceased farmers was dismissed without giving an effective hearing.
