New Delhi: The Supreme Court questioned the Uttar Pradesh administration on Wednesday, March 30, for not cancelling Ashish Misra’s bail, as recommended by the special investigation team, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asked the lawyer appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, “It appears from the report of the monitoring judge that he had recommended the cancellation of bail and recommended that an application be filed for this. Why was this not done?”
Ashish Misra son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni was arrested on October 9 last year in connection with the violence that erupted in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. On October 3, 2021, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri in clashes during a farmers’ protest.
He was released from custody after the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench granted him bail. On February 14, Ashish Misra’s lawyers submitted two Rs 3 lakh bail bonds in response to his bail orders.
The petitioners’ lawyer, Dushyant Dave, said: “Minister Ajay Misra [father of Ashish Misra] is very influential.”
The SIT wrote to the chief secretary (Home), recommending that the bail be cancelled. The monitoring judge also said this in his letter, said the CJI.
To this, the UP government’s counsel said: “I have no information about this. I have not seen the report, nor has the instructing standing counsel seen it.” He then went out of the courtroom to call the Chief Secretary of UP over the phone. He then informed the court that the Chief Secretary’s office had not received the recommendation letter from the SIT or the monitoring judge.
The SC then asked the registrar to provide a copy of the report filed by the monitoring judge on February 22 to both the government’s counsel and the petitioners. Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Ashish Misra, also sought a copy. He also urged to adjourn the next hearing to Monday. CJI Ramana granted the request but said: “The matter has been prolonged for more than a month.”
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government, refuted charges by the families of the victims of letting the minister’s son off easy and not protecting a witness, said the bail application by Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra, accused of running over farmers during a march last year, had been “vehemently opposed”.
Later UP government, while filing response to a plea in Supreme Court challenging Mr Mishra’s bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri case, said the decision to file an appeal against the bail “is pending consideration before relevant authorities”.
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