The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over a plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to Ashish Mishra, son of union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, who had been arrested in connection with the death of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri district in October last year. Ashish Mishra had been given bail by the Allahabad High Court.
Ashish Mishra is the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case – violence that broke out amid the height of farmers’ protest after four farmers were run down by a car allegedly driven by him. A total of eight people died – three BJP workers and a journalist were also killed in the violence that followed the farmers’ deaths.A special bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana asked the state government to file a reply to the plea seeking cancellation of bail and directed that witnesses in the case be protected, after it took note of the submissions that one of them had been attacked.The court was hearing a plea filed by family members of farmers killed in the violence. They are seeking a stay on the February 10 bail order, on grounds the verdict was ‘unsustainable in the eyes of law as there has been no meaningful and effective assistance by the state to the court in the matter’.
