Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: List Ashish Mishra's plea before 'appropriate bench', says SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed that Ashish Mishra's bail plea in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case be listed before an appropriate bench.


A bench of justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna said: "list before a bench that has earlier considered this issue elaborately and the file to be placed before CJI in this regard."

The court was hearing a plea filed by Ashish Mishra challenging the Allahabad high court order which denied him bail in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, has moved the Supreme Court challenging Allahabad high court which denied bail to him in connection with the said case.

On July 26, the Allahabad high court denied bail to Ashish Mishra as it was rejected by this court's Lucknow bench.

The said order was then challenged by Ashish Mishra in the Supreme Court through the advocate on record T. Mahipal.

The high court in its order had then said: "It is pertinent to note that in the violent case of Lakhimpur Kheri, four farmers had died and the accused as well as his car was present there. This is the biggest fact, this case comes under the category of a heinous crime."

Mishra is facing a case of murder for the incident that took place on October 3, 2021, in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.

As per the reports, he had allegedly run over the farmers who were protesting against the three farm laws passed by the Centre. Mishra was arrested on October 9 and was granted bail in February this year.

Mishra, then moved the high court as the Court's earlier order was set aside by the Supreme Court in April 2022.

The top court earlier had set aside the Allahabad High Court order dated February 10, 2022, and remitted the matter back to the high court. It also said that the order of the Allahabad high court cannot be sustained and had to be set aside and the bail bonds of the respondent/accused were cancelled.

The court had further directed Ashish Mishra to surrender within a week.

Meanwhile, the family members of the victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad high court order, which granted bail to Ashish Mishra.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had appointed a committee headed by retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Rakesh Kumar Jain to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.