LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court granted bail to Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, on Thursday. The HC’s Lucknow bench had reserved its order on January 18 on Mishra’s plea after concluding the hearing through video-conferencing.
Mishra is accused of mowing down four farmers under his SUV following which farmers lynched three persons including two BJP workers and a driver of Teni. While granting the bail with some conditions, Justice Rajeev Singh there might be a possibility that the SUV driver tried to speed up to save himself on account of which the incident took place.
In its order, the court observed that primarily only two allegations were levelled against the accused — of causing firearm injury to the deceased and of provoking his driver to crush the protesters. In connection with the first charge, the court observed that no firearm injury was found on the body of the deceased or any other person except the injury caused by hitting by a vehicle as per the autopsy report.
As for the second charge, the court observed that in the wake of thousands gathered at the place of incident, the driver might have tried to speed up for saving himself on account of which the incident took place. The judge said that after considering the overall facts, the killing of three persons sitting in the SUV by the protestors could not be overlooked. In its order, the HC said the photographs available clearly gave an idea of the brutality with which the trio was killed.
The high court also issued directives to the protest organisers to help in identifying the protestors accused of killing the persons sitting in the SUV and provide their details. It also reprimanded the Lakhimpur Kheri administration for letting some persons for their political benefit call people to assemble without due permission under the law.