The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Ashish Mishra, son of former Union Minister Ajay Mishra, who was arrested in connection with the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence that claimed eight lives.
Earlier on January 25, 2023, the Apex Court had given interim bail to Ashish Mishra in the case.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan also granted bail to farmers in the case and directed the trial court to expedite hearing.
The top court of the country said in its order that taking into consideration all the attending circumstances, it was making its interim order as absolute.
Noting that out of 117 witnesses, seven have been examined so far, the Bench directed the trial court to fix the schedule, keeping in view other time-bound or urgent matters that were pending, while prioritising the pending subject.
Violence had erupted in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh on October 3, 2021, when four of the farmers protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to the area were mowed down by a sports utility vehicle. the farmers were protesting against the Centre’s now-repealed three agriculture laws.
A driver and two Bharatiya Janata Party workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died during the incident.
The trial court had, on December 6, 2023, framed charges against Mishra and 12 others for the alleged offences of murder, criminal conspiracy and under other penal laws in the case of the farmers’ deaths, paving the way for the trial to start.