Lakhimpur Kheri: Farmer's kin oppose bail for accused

UP: The families of the farmers allegedly killed in the violence instigated at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh last year have moved the Supreme Court to oppose the bail granted to prime accused Ashish Mishra, son of Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra.

In their appeal filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, the families of Jagjeet Singh, Pawan Kashyap and Sukhwinder Singh, who were among four farmers killed in the October 3 violence,alleged that the high court verdict was "unsustainable in eyes of law as there has been no meaningful and effective assistance by the state to the court in the matter".

The plea also alleged that the high court did not consider the "overwhelming evidence" against the accused, position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and witnesses and the likelihood of him fleeing from justice and repeating the offence while granting the bail.

"The impugned order is unsustainable in eyes of law as there has been no meaningful and effective assistance by the state to the court in the matter contrary to object of first Proviso to Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which provides that in grave offences notice of bail application should ordinarily be given to the Public Prosecutor," it added.

Mishra was granted bail on February 10 by the Allahabad High Court, While granting relief, the single-judge bench of Justice Rajeev Singh made several observations, one of which was that 'possibly, the driver tried to speed up the vehicle to save himself, on account of which, the incident took place.'

Mishra is accused of deliberately running his SUV into a group of farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3 last year. In retaliation for the deaths, two workers of the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Union minister's driver were lynched by the angry crowd of protestors.

The plea filed by the families of the dead farmers also accuses the court of refusing to consider the "overwhelming evidence" as well as not being able to hear the testimony of witnesses who were disconnected during the online proceedings of the trial and could not present their case.

Farmers maintain that Ashish Kumar was in the lead car that ran over people. The minister and his son have denied the latter's involvement in the incident.