The Supreme Court will deliver on Monday its verdict on a petition challenging the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, reported PTI on Sunday.
The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce its verdict at 10.30 am on Monday. It had reserved its ruling on April 4.
Farmer bodies had alleged that a vehicle belonging to Ashish Mishra had run over people on October 3 during a protest in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district against the now-repealed three farm laws. Mishra had been arrested on October 9. He walked out of jail on February 15 after the Allahabad High Court granted him bail on February 10.
Families of those killed have challenged the bail order in the Supreme Court.
At the last hearing, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, had condemned the violence, calling it a “grave offence”, but said that Ashish Mishra was not a flight risk.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the petitioners, had urged the court to cancel Mishra’s bail.
“The HC failed to consider relevant facts and judgment suffers from gross non-application of mind,” Dave had said.
The Supreme Court had said the Uttar Pradesh government should have filed an appeal against Mishra’s bail order as recommended by a retired judge appointed to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri case investigation.
“We expected state to act on suggestion of the SIT [Special Investigation Team],” the three-judge bench had orally observed.
To this, Jethmalani had said that the Special Investigation Team of the Uttar Pradesh Police asked the state government to challenge the Allahabad High Court verdict since Mishra is an influential person. However, he had added that the suggestion “did not impress us”.
About the case
In November, the Supreme Court had appointed former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Rakesh Kumar Jain to oversee the inquiry into the matter by the Special Investigation Team. The court had also appointed three police officers from outside Uttar Pradesh to the Special Investigation Team.
This was after the judges had repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction at the Uttar Pradesh government’s handling of the investigation into the violence.
The Uttar Pradesh government had claimed before the Supreme Court in an affidavit that it had “vehemently opposed” bail to Mishra in the Allahabad High Court.
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