[Lakhimpur Kheri] Family members of deceased farmers move Supreme Court against bail to Ashish Mishra

Family members of deceased farmers who were mowed down by a car belonging to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri have approached the Supreme Court challenging the bail granted by Allahabad High Court to Mishra..The plea filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan said that family members have been forced to approach the top court since the State of Uttar Pradesh has failed to file appeal against the High Court order granting bail.On the merits of the order, the plea said that the High Court did not consider the overwhelming evidence against Mishra while granting bail since the chargesheet against him was not on brought on record. It was submitted that the High Court granted bail without considering the heinous nature of the crime, the character of the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the chargesheet, the position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and witnesses, the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and repeating the offence and the possibility of his tampering with the witnesses and obstructing the course of justice.The plea also stated that victims were prevented from bringing the relevant material to the notice of High Court as their counsel got disconnected from the hearing of the bail matter on January 18, 2022. The counsel could barely make any submissions and repeated calls to the court staff to get reconnected were to no avail and application filed by the victims before High Court for an effective rehearing was rejected, the plea said..On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against the now revoked farm laws. The protesters had impeded the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was planning to attend an event in the area. A four-wheeler belonging to Mishra then allegedly mowed down and killed eight persons, including the protesting farmers.After he was arrested, the Uttar Pradesh Police's special investigation team (SIT) filed a 5,000-page chargesheet before a local court, naming Mishra as prime accused in the case. In November, a trial court had rejected his application for bail, prompting Mishra to move the High Court..Single-judge Justice Rajeev Singh of the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to Mishra on February 10, stating that there might be a possibility that the driver of the vehicle that mowed down the protesting farmers sped up the vehicle to save himself."Indubitably, no firearm injury has been found on the body of the deceased or any other person, except the injury of the hitting from the vehicle. Furthermore, in case, the story of the prosecution is accepted, thousands of protesters gathered at the place of incident and there might be a possibility that the driver tried to speed up the vehicle to save himself, on account of which, the incident had taken place," the High Court order said.