Investigators have written to a judge to modify the charges against the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case (PTI photo)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has listed the hearing of a plea challenging bail granted to Lakhimpur incident accused, Ashish Mishra, to March 15. Advocate Prashant Bhushan told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana that the hearing was listed to be on Friday but wasn't there in the list of business, PTI reported.
In the meantime, one of the witnesses in the case faced an attack on Thursday night.
The CJI's bench, also membered by Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said that there had been a mistake, and the case will be listed on Tuesday.
The petition against the Allahabad High Court's order granting bail to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, was requested to be heard urgently on March 4, and the top court had posted the hearing for March 11. Bhushan, who requested the urgent hearing submitted before the court that co-accused in the court, is moving for bail after the relief was granted to Ashish Mishra.
Following that, the SC asked the Bhushan to inform the Allahabad High Court about the apex court taking the plea against bail.
On February 10, single judge HC bench had granted Ashish Mishra bail, under custody for four months. Three family members of the dead farmers had approached the SC against the bail, and later a group of lawyers also filed a similar plea.
On October 13 last year, amidst the raging farmers' protest, four farmers died in Lakhimpur Kheri after an SUV owned by Ashish Mishra rammed into a crowd. This happened at the spot where Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was about to visit, and the gathered farmers were staging protests against him. Later the driver and two BJP workers were also killed, allegedly in the hands of angry farmers.