Ashish Mishra, Ajay Mishra had no role in Lakhimpur Kheri witness threat: UP to Supreme Court

Former Union minister Ajay Mishra and his son Ashish Mishra will face no prosecution in the witness intimidation case linked to the Lakhimpur Kheri trial, Uttar Pradesh Police informed the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The submission was made before a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana during the hearing of a plea in which the top court is monitoring the trial.

In the case alleging witness intimidation, only one person, Amandeep Singh has been charge-sheeted by the police.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Ashish Mishra, submitted,

"I have not been even named in the chargesheet. The trial will wrap up in three months."

The cases concerns the events of October 3, 2021 at Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people, four of them farmers, lost their lives after vehicles allegedly tied to Ashish Mishra drove into a crowd of protesters.

The Supreme Court later granted him bail but kept the proceedings pending to monitor progress of the trial.

The threat to witness case originated in a grievance raised by Baljinder Singh, a witness in the main trial, who said attempts were made to make him back off from his testimony.

It was only after the top court pulled up the State for sitting on his complaint that the Assistant Superintendent of Police of Lakhimpur travelled to Muktsar in Punjab, where Singh was staying, and took down his account.

A case under Sections 195-A, 506 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code was then registered. Following the filing of a charge-sheet against one accused, the matter is now pending before a trial court.

The top court today took the police report on record and allowed the complainant two weeks to place his response on affidavit.

The police status report also revealed that 64 witnesses are yet to be examined by the trial court in the main case.

The case will be heard again next month.