Lakhimpur Kheri violence: SC-appointed committee told Uttar Pradesh govt to cancel Ashish Misra's bail twice

The Supreme Court-appointed committee in its status report in the Lakhimpur Kheri case said that the special investigation team probing the case had recommended the cancellation of the bail granted to prime accused Ashish Mishra twice to the Uttar Pradesh government.

According to India Today, its report also stated that evidence substantiated that Ashish Misra, son of Union minister Ajay Misra Teni, was at the spot of the violence that killed eight people, and knew about the change in the route taken by UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on October 3, the day of the incident, to attend a function.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court last Wednesday had questioned the Uttar Pradesh government over the delay in challenging the bail to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra “Teni”, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, pointing out that the retired high court judge monitoring the special investigation team (SIT) recommended to the state authorities twice to seek cancellation of Mishra’s bail.

Mishra was arrested on October 9 after repeated criticism of the state government for the way it handled the investigation in the case. On February 10, he was granted bail by the Allahabad high court.

The petition seeking cancellation of Mishra’s bail was filed by Jagjeet Singh, Pawan Kashyap and Sukhwinder Singh – the kin of three victims who died in the violence.

In their petition, they feared that the witnesses in the case would be intimidated as the accused was influential. It was also contended that the bail order did not consider the heinous nature of the crime, the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge sheet, the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice, and the possibility of his tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.