The Supreme Court of India (SC) on Wednesday sought a reply from the government of Uttar Pradesh on the report of its appointed committee to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
The SC appointed committee recommended the state to prefer the appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order granting bail to prime accused Ashish Mishra.
The SC was hearing a plea which sought the cancellation of bail granted by the Allahabad HC on February 10 to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni, reported ANI.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI ) N V Ramana headed bench listed the matter for April 4 and asked the state government to file a response to the report filed by its committee.
Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the state of Uttar Pradesh told the court during the hearing that he will take instructions in this regard.
Meanwhile, appearing dor the petitioners, senior advocate Dushyant Dave told the court that the state has opposed the plea of accused Ashish Mishra in Allahabad HC. The Allahabad HC order suffered from complete non application of mind, he stated.
The state has taken all efforts to protect the witnesses and families of victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, the Uttar Pradesh government told the SC in an earlier affidavit.
It came in reply to a petition seeking the cancellation of Ashish Mishra’s bail.
The state government told the apex court that allegations that the state’s effective opposition to the bail application of the accused Ashish Mishra were completely untrue.
The limitation period against the Allahabad HC order of February 10 is still running and the decision to file Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the same is pending consideration before the relevant authorities, the Uttar Pradesh government said.
Notably, advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner had said in an earlier hearing that a few days after granting bail to Mishra, one of the prime protected witnesses was brutally attacked.
In the Special Leave Petition, the family members of the deceased had challenged the Allahabad HC order dated February 10, in which Ashish Mishra was granted regular bail.
The petitioner said that the Allahabad HC order is unsustainable in law. They also said that they approached the apex court as Uttar Pradesh government has failed to prefer any appeal against the impugned order.
Ashish Mishra, was released from jail in February the Allahabad HC granted him bail. Eight people, including four farmers, had died in violence on October 3, last year in Lakhimpur Kheri.
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.
