New Delhi:
The government of Uttar Pradesh today opposed the bail application of the son of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra in the Supreme Court, who is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prashad told a court Surya Kant and Justice JK Maheshwari that the crime is serious.
“It is a serious and heinous crime and (granting bail) will send the wrong message to society,” she said after the court asked her why she opposed the plea for bail.
The top court said there are two versions of the serious and heinous crime and it cannot comment on either version.
“We assume on the face of it that he is involved and that he is an accused and not innocent. Is it the state’s business that he tried to destroy evidence?” asked the bank.
To this the additional Solicitor General replied: “That has not happened so far.” Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who spoke for those opposed to the bail plea, said that being granted bail will send a terrible message to society. “It’s a conspiracy and a well-planned murder. I’ll show from the indictment… He’s the son of a powerful man represented by a powerful lawyer,” he said.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, acting for Mishra, strongly opposed Dave’s submission, saying “What is this? Who is powerful? We are appearing every day. Can this be a condition of not granting bail?” Rohatgi argued that his client has been in detention for more than a year and according to the way the trial is proceeding, it will take seven to eight years to complete. He stated that Jagjeet Singh, who is the prosecutor in the case, is not an eyewitness and his complaint is based on rumors only.
“Jagjit Singh is the prosecutor and he is not an eyewitness. I am surprised that when a large number of people say that we have run over people mercilessly, an FIR is registered on the version of a person who is not an eyewitness?” he said.
“My client was initially granted bail. This is not a cock and bull story and there is truth in my story,” said Rohatgi, adding that his client is not a criminal and that there are no past records.
The hearing in this case is ongoing.
On 3 October 2021, eight people were killed in Tikunia in Lakhimpur Kheri district in a violence that erupted as farmers protested the visit of Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya to the area.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR, four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in which Ashish Mishra was sitting. Following the incident, a driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist was also killed in the violence.
On December 6 last year, a court had filed charges against Ashish Mishra and 12 others for the alleged offenses of murder, criminal conspiracy and others in the case of the death of the protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. process.
A total of 13 defendants, including Ashish Mishra, have been charged under IPC Sections 147 and 148 in connection with rioting, 149 (unlawful gathering), 302 (murder), 307 (attempted murder), 326 (intentionally causing serious injury by dangerous weapons). or means), 427 (mischief) and 120B (penalty for criminal conspiracy), and section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act.
The other 12 accused are Ankit Das, Nandan Singh Bisht, Latif Kale, Satyam alias Satya Prakash Tripathi, Shekhar Bharti, Sumit Jaiswal, Ashish Pandey, Lavkush Rana, Shishu Pal, Ullas Kumar alias Mohit Trivedi, Rinku Rana and Dharmendra Banjara. They are all in prison.
While hearing the case on December 12 last year, the top court had asked the state government, which opposed the bail application of Ashish Mishra, who called the offense “very serious”, to file an affidavit on the status of the case filed over the murder of three occupants of the SUV.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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