Lakhimpur Kheri case: UP govt opposes Union minister's son's bail in SC
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Jan, 2023 11:32 AM
Lucknow, Jan 19 (IANS) In a surprise move, the Uttar Pradesh government, on Thursday, opposed the bail plea of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son, who is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, in the Supreme Court.
Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prasad told a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.K. Maheshwari that the crime is "grave".
"It is a grave and heinous crime and (granting bail) will send a wrong signal to society," she said when asked for reasons to oppose the bail plea.
"We are taking prima facie view that he is involved and he is an accused and not innocent. Is it the state's case that he has attempted to destroy evidence?" the bench asked.
The court said about the grave and heinous crime there are two versions and it cannot comment on any of the versions.
The additional advocate general replied, "That has not happened till now."
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 the accused Ashish Mishra, strongly opposed Dave's submission and said, "What is this? Who is powerful? We are appearing every day. Can this be a condition to not grant bail?"
Rohatgi 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 pointed out that Jagjeet 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.
It may be recalled that 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 Ashish 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 Ashish 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.
Addressing a gathering during at a state-level function to mark the martyrdom day of the Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha at his native village here, the Chief Minister said bestowing the Bharat Ratna award to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha, Shaheed Rajguru, Shaheed Sukhdev, Lala Lajpat Rai and others will enhance the prestige of this award.
A Delhi Police team on Wednesday again visited the rented house, in south Delhi's Chhattarpur, of Aftab Ameen Poonawalla (28), who has been arrested for allegedly killing his live-in partner and chopping her body into 35 pieces for disposal. According to a senior police official, the police team, along with forensic teams, inspected the house again.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with several world leaders during the ongoing 17th G20 Summit in Bali, including US and French Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, as well as his British counterpart Rishi Sunak. The Prime Minister's Office shared several photographs of his meetings with the world leaders.
For the second time on Tuesday morning, the police team took the accused Aftab Ameen Poonawala to the Mehrauli forest area to recover the remains of the body of Shraddha Walker which the accused chopped into 35 pieces. He was first taken to the area on Monday.
The body of a man, appearing to be in his early 30s, was found stuffed in a suitcase outside the railway station in Punjab's Jalandhar city on Tuesday, police said. The police reached the spot and found a red suitcase just outside railway station.
The bench noted that after its last orders in the matter, except two meetings of the Ghaggar Standing Committee, no concrete steps have been taken by the state governments on the recommendations made by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune.
