Supreme Court reserves order on plea against Ashish Mishra's bail
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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 reserved its order on a petition by relatives of Lakhimpur Kheri incident victims, seeking cancellation of the bail granted to chief accused Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra. On Monday, the Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana headed the bench and wondered how the Allahabad High Court could go into the merits of the case while granting bail to the accused, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.
The SC bench said that it is hearing a bail matter and wish not to prolong it. "Prima facie, the question is whether bail needs to be cancelled or not. We don't want to entertain nonsense questions like which car, post mortem etc.," TIE quotes CJI.
The court referred the Special Investigation team's recommendation to Uttar Pradesh to challenge the bail order by HC.
While Ashish Mishra keeps standing on his testimony that he was not in the car while the violent incident happened, the Uttar Pradesh government informed the court that they see no attempt to evidence tampering or threats to witnesses. The state government has provided ample security and kept a regular check on the witnesses in the case, it informed the court, openly expressing its unwillingness to move against the bail granted to Ashish Mishra. It added that Mishra is not a repeat offender or a flight risk, thus qualifying to receive bai.
Meanwhile, the petitioners' counsel, senior advocate Dushyant Dave said that the Allahabad HC only took the FIR while granting the bail but ignored the charge sheet as well as the fact that the Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance.