[BREAKING] Lakhimpur Kheri: Supreme Court cancels bail granted to Ashish Mishra by Allahabad High Court

The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted by Allahabad High Court to Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which 8 people were killed after being allegedly mowed down by Mishra's vehicle..A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli remanded the matter back to the High Court for fresh consideration.This was in view of the fact that victims of the crime (family members of the deceased) were denied chance of effective hearing before the Allahabad High Court. "The denial of victims to be heard and the tearing hurry shown by the High Court merits the setting aside of bail order. Thus, we remand the matter back to High Court for fresh consideration of the bail application of accused," the top court directed.Mishra has to surrender before the police within a week, the Court further said. The bench observed that a victim of a crime has the unbridled participatory right in criminal trial process. The Court also said that the Allahabad High Court did not consider judicial precedents while granting bail to Mishra. "FIR cannot be treated as an encyclopedia of events. Judicial precedents were ignored," the order stated..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.During the protests, a four-wheeler belonging to Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, had allegedly mowed down and killed eight persons, including the protesting farmers.Mishra was arrested on October 9, 2021 a the Special Investigation Team (SIT) after 12 hours of questioning and was sent to three days police custody.On November 15, the Supreme Court stated that it wanted the SIT probe to be supervised by a retired High Court judge from a different State.This was after the Court remarked that it does not have confidence in the judicial commission constituted by Uttar Pradesh (UP) government to monitor the probe.The UP government had constituted a one man commission of retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava to monitor the investigation.In November 2021, a trial court had rejected Mishra's application for bail, prompting Mishra to move the High Court.Justice Rajeev Singh of the Allahabad High Court then granted bail to Mishra on February 10, stating that there might have been a possibility that the driver of the vehicle that mowed down the protesting farmers sped up the vehicle to save himself.After the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Mishra in the case, the family members of the deceased had approached the Supreme Court in appeal, seeking cancellation of the bail since the State of Uttar Pradesh did not file an appeal against the bail order..[Read Judgment]

[BREAKING] Lakhimpur Kheri: Supreme Court cancels bail granted to Ashish Mishra by Allahabad High Court

Debayan Roy

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