Supreme Court quashes the decision to grant bail to the son of a Union minister in Lakhimpur violence
The Supreme Court on Monday canceled the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
A special bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli also asked the accused to surrender within a week. Apart from this, the top court has sent the matter back to the Allahabad High Court to reconsider whether the accused Ashish Mishra should be granted bail. The bench was hearing a petition filed by the relatives of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, seeking cancellation of bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to accused Ashish Mishra on February 10.
On April 4, the apex court had reserved its order on the petition of farmers to cancel Mishra’s bail. Ashish Mishra got bail from the Allahabad High Court on February 10. Earlier, he had been in custody for four months. The families of some of the victims had later moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of bail. He had claimed that after Ashish’s release, one of the witnesses in the case was attacked on March 10 and threatened by the attackers. The attackers reportedly said that ‘Ashish Mishra is out on bail and BJP has also won the election, will see you now’.
On November 17, 2021, the Supreme Court took cognizance of the matter after some petitions were sent to it. The court had appointed former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain to oversee the investigation of the SIT set up by the Uttar Pradesh government.
It is worth noting that on October 3 last year, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in violence during a farmers’ protest at Tikunia village in Lakhimpur Kheri district. In this case, Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, was arrested as the main accused on 9 October 2021.
On October 3, 2021 i.e. on the day of the incident, the protesting farmers of Lakhimpur Kheri MP Ajay Kumar Mishra protested against the departure of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in a function organized in his native village Banbirpur. .
It is alleged that during this time a convoy of three SUVs including Mahindra Thar belonging to Ajay Kumar Mishra trampled the farmers protesting at Tikunia crossing in Tikunia in the district, killing four farmers and a journalist and about half a dozen People were injured.
In the case, there are many serious allegations against Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra and a dozen of his associates like crushing four farmers with a Thar jeep and firing at them. Mahindra Thar vehicle owner Ashish Mishra’s father was Union Minister Ajay Mishra ‘Tenny’. According to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR, a vehicle in which Ashish Mishra was sitting had crushed four farmers. Gurvinder Singh (22 years), Daljit Singh (35 years), Nakshatra Singh and Lovepreet Singh, besides journalist Raman Kashyap were among the dead farmers after being crushed by the vehicle.
Three people, including two BJP workers, were lynched by a mob after a group of protesting farmers were crushed by an SUV convoy. They were identified as BJP workers – Shubham Mishra (26 years) and Shyam Sundar (40 years) and Hariom Mishra (35 years), the driver of the SUV of the Union Minister of State. The first FIR in this regard was lodged by a farmer, in which Ashish Mishra and 15-20 others were accused of crushing four farmers and a journalist.
On January 3, the SIT constituted to investigate the violence had filed a chargesheet against Ashish Mishra, Sumit Jaiswal, Ankit Das and 11 others in connection with FIR No. 219 under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act. The second FIR was lodged by Sumit Jaiswal in connection with the murder of two BJP workers and a driver. While investigating in relation to FIR number-220, the SIT had identified seven people and arrested them. However, in the month of January itself, only four farmers were made accused while filing the charge sheet.
