Lakhimpur Kheri case: SC to pronounce order on Wednesday on Ashish Mishra bail plea
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 Jan, 2023 11:27 AM
New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) The Supreme Court would pronounce its order on Wednesday on the bail plea of Ashish Mishra, key accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and son of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra.
According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J.K. Maheshwari will pronounce the order on January 25.
The apex court had reserved its order on Mishra's plea on January 19.
Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prashad opposed Mishra's bail plea. She had submitted that it was a grave and heinous crime and granting bail will send a wrong signal to society.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for those opposing the bail plea, said grant of bail will send a terrible message to society.
"It is a conspiracy and a well-planned murder. I will show it from the charge sheet. He is the son of a powerful man being represented by a powerful lawyer," he said.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Mishra, strongly opposed Dave's submission, saying: "What is this? Who is powerful? We are appearing every day. Can this be a condition to not grant bail?"
He submitted that his client has been in custody for more than a year and the way the trial is going, it will take seven to eight years to complete it.
He said that Jagjit Singh, who is the complainant in the case, is not an eyewitness and his complaint is just based on hearsay.
"Jagjit Singh is the complainant and he is not an eyewitness. I am surprised that when there are many people saying we ran over people mercilessly, an FIR is registered on the version of a person who is not an eyewitness?" Rohatgi said, adding that his client is not a criminal and there are no past records.
On October 3, 2021, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri district's Tikunia in a violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR, four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated.
Following the incident, a driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died in the violence.
On December 6 last year, a trial court had framed charges against Mishra and 12 others for the alleged offences of murder, criminal conspiracy and others in the case of death of the protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, paving the way for the start of the trial.
A total of 13 accused, including Mishra, have been charged under IPC sections 147 and 148 related to rioting, 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 427 (mischief) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), and section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act.
The other 12 accused are Ankit Das, Nandan Singh Bisht, Latif Kale, Satyam a.k.a Satya Prakash Tripathi, Shekhar Bharti, Sumit Jaiswal, Ashish Pandey, Lavkush Rana, Shishu Pal, Ullas Kumar Trivedi, Rinku Rana and Dharmendra Banjara.
On late evening of Sunday, during the course of security check of baggage of the outgoing international passengers by airline's staff on x-ray machine at international departure at SGRDJI Airport, Amritsar, some suspicious images in a bag were observed. The airline's staff alerted the Customs officers on duty.
The police are corroborating the shocking statements issued by several people against the accused seer's habit of sexually exploiting minors in the Chitradurga Murugha mutt for over 10 years. Sharananda Swamiji, who was formerly with the Murugha mutt, has stated that there were more victims.
Besides Capt Amarinder Singh, others who joined the BJP included former Deputy Speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti, former MPs Amrik Singh Aliwal, and Kewal Singh, former MLAs Prem Mittal, Harchand Kaur, Harjinder Thekedar, Balbir Rani Sodhi, former Punjab Mahila Congress President, Raninder Singh, Beeba Jaya Inder Kaur, Nirvan Singh, Kamaljit Saino and Farzana Alam, who was represented by her daughter.
According to media reports, Mann, who was on a eigh-day trip to Germany till September 18, delayed his departure as he was reportedly in 'an inebriated state'. However, AAP has strongly denied the charge, saying Mann was not deplaned at the Frankfurt airport. The party termed it as false and frivolous propaganda by political rivals.
The official added that a case was registered against Shailendra Sharma, the Superintendent and Tax Clerk Raman Agarwal on a complaint alleging that they were demanding a bribe of Rs 50,000 which was reduced to Rs 25,000 from the complainant for getting his mutation file processed. The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed while demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 25,000 from the complainant.
Both -- Mandeep, alias Manna Tuffan, and Manpreet, alias Mani Rayia -- were allegedly involved in the murder of gangster Ranbir Singh, alias Rana Kandowalia. Kandowalia, who was facing dozens of cases of murder and attempt to murder, was gunned down outside a private hospital in Amritsar in August last year. The Bhagwanpuria group had taken the responsibility for the murder.
