SC to set up bench to hear plea against bail to Ashish Misra in Lakhimpur Kheri case
Darpan News Desk IANS, 15 Mar, 2022 11:52 AM
New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will constitute a bench to hear on Wednesday a plea filed by the family members of the farmers, mowed by a car belonging to Ashish Misra, in Lakhimpur Kheri challenging bail granted to him by the Allahabad High Court.
Misra is the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Misra.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said a bench will be constituted, which heard the matter earlier and scheduled the matter for hearing on Wednesday.
Earlier, a bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had appointed a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to monitor the probe.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing some farmers, submitted that there was an attack on one of the prime witnesses in the case. Bhushan claimed people who attacked the witness threatened by saying that now that the BJP has won, they will take care of him. He had submitted that other co-accused are also seeking bail relying on the high court order. In February, a single-judge bench of the high court granted bail to Mishra who had spent four months in custody.
On March 11, the Supreme Court had agreed to list on March 15, a plea filed by the family members of the farmers, mowed by a car belonging to Ashish Misra, in Lakhimpur Kheri challenging bail granted to him by the Allahabad High Court.
The plea contended that the family members were forced to move the apex court since Uttar Pradesh has failed to file an appeal challenging bail granted to Misra.
The plea argued that the high court granted bail without considering the heinous nature of the crime and also in the backdrop of overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge sheet. The plea further argued that there is likelihood of the accused tampering with the witnesses and causing obstruction in justice.
In November last year, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri violence probe. The top court also reconstituted the SIT investigating the incident and appointed IPS officer S.B. Shiradkar, as its head.
Misra was arrested on October 9 last year in the case. On October 3, 2021, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri in clashes during a farmers' protest.
The activists of Punjab Congress will walk towards Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh if Priyanka Gandhi is not released and the Union Minister's son accused of murder not arrested, said state party President Navjot Sidhu on Tuesday.
Referring to police action against protesting farmers in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the BJP leader said, "Congress leaders who are very keen to visit Lakhimpur Kheri have not uttered a single word against police lathicharge on farmers in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan."
Comparisons are on in social media whether this arrest could change the Congress fortunes as after Indira Gandhi's arrest and later in the election in 1980 the Congress returned with a thumping majority.
During the 45-minute long meeting with the Home Minister, Channi also discussed the security situation of the state and demanded that the border must be sealed properly to effectively prevent the smuggling of weapons from Pakistan.
It is the largest agricultural protest to take place in India and others from around the world have also joined in, tens of thousands of farmers have camped for months on major highways to New Delhi to oppose the three laws.
