Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: Supreme Court cancels bail of Ashish Mishra, asks him to surrender in a week

File photo of Ashish Mishra. ANI

The Supreme Court Monday cancelled bail granted to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister and BJP leader Ajay Mishra Teni, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. The court has directed him to surrender within a week.

On 10 February, 2022, Ashish Mishra was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court. The verdict was challenged by the families of farmers who were killed on 3 October, 2021 at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.

Supreme Court verdict on Lakhimpur Kheri accused Ashish Mishra

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana on Monday remanded the matter back to the High Court for fresh consideration.

“The denial of victims to be heard and the tearing hurry shown by the High Court merits the setting aside of bail order. Thus, we remand the matter back to High Court for fresh consideration of the bail application of accused,” the Supreme Court said.

The bench observed that a victim of a crime has the “unbridled participatory right” in criminal trial process.

The top court has also said that the Allahabad High Court did not consider judicial precedents while granting bail to Mishra.

“FIR cannot be treated as an encyclopedia of events. Judicial precedents were ignored,” the court said in its order.

After the Supreme Court’s order, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the victims, urged the apex court that the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court be requested to assign another bench to consider the case.

The top court said it is not necessary for it to observe anything in that regard and left the matter to the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

The Supreme Court had on 4 April, 2022, reserved its order on a plea of farmers seeking cancellation of bail to Ashish Mishra.

The apex court had earlier raised questions over the Allahabad High Court verdict granting bail to Ashish Mishra, saying unnecessary details like postmortem report and nature of wounds should not have gone into when the trial was yet to begin.

The special bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, had also taken strong note of the fact that the Uttar Pradesh government did not file an appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s order as suggested by the apex court-appointed SIT.

The bench had taken note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhushan, appearing for farmers, that the high court did not consider the extensive charge sheet and rather relied upon the FIR where it was alleged that one person received bullet injuries.

On 16 March, 2022, the Supreme Court had sought responses of the Uttar Pradesh government and Ashish Mishra, on a plea challenging the grant of bail to him and also directed it to ensure the protection of witnesses after the counsel, appearing for farmers, referred to the attack on a key witness on 10 March.

On October 2021, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to the area.

Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers.

A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre’s now-repealed agricultural reform laws.

With inputs from agencies

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