[Lakhimpur Kheri] Possibility that driver tried to speed up vehicle to save himself: Allahabad High Court

While granting bail to Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, the Allahabad High Court today said that there might be a possibility that the driver of the vehicle that mowed down protesting farmers sped up the vehicle to save himself..Justice Rajeev Singh said in the order passed today, "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.".Why Ashish Mishra was granted bail.- 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;- Court cannot shut its eyes to the killing of three persons sitting in the Thar vehicle, including the driver, who were killed by the protesters;- Prosecution alleged that Mishra provoked the driver of the vehicle to crush the protesters. However, the driver along with two others who were in the vehicle, had been killed by the protesters;- During the course of investigation, notice was issued to Mishra and he appeared before the Investigating Officer;- Chargesheet has already been filed..Pertinently, the Court also said that it "cannot shut its eyes to the killing of three persons sitting in the Thar vehicle" owned by Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni..Counsel for Mishra had argued that he had been falsely implicated in the present case. To protest against the remarks made by Teni against farmers, a huge crowd had gathered at a wrestling competition and public meeting that was to be attended by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was invited as the Chief Guest.Without any permission, a number of protesters armed with lathis and sword gathered there along with notorious persons and encroached the entire area, submitted Chaturvedi..Counsel for the State submitted that protestors were run over by the vehicles of Mishra and his followers, following which five persons - Nakshatra Singh, Daljeet Singh, Lavpreet Singh, Gurvinder Singh and Raman Kashyap - died and 13 other persons were injured. .The Court, however, noted that the FIR wrongly attributed the role of firing at the protesters to Mishra, since no bullet wounds were found on their bodies. It instead chose to focus on the fact that the driver and the vehicle and two others were killed by the protestors..In parting, the court expressed its concern over the lack of seriousness by the district administration in handling the violence."However, before parting with the judgment, it is noteworthy to mention here that there was serious lackness of the District Administration, as some persons, for their political benefits, call innocent persons, without due permission under law. In the present case, though the order under Section 144 Cr.P.C. was operating, 17 thousands of persons from different districts, even from other States gathered at one place, which was very well within the knowledge of the District Administration, as is evident from the statement of its officials, but neither any preventive action was taken nor any action against the organisers had been taken."It thus directed the Chief Secretary of the State of Uttar Pradesh to issue necessary directions and guidelines for regulating assemblies and processions in order to avoid inconvenience caused to the citizens..Senior Advocate Gopal Chaturvedi and Advocates Saumya Chaturvedi, Salil Kumar Srivastava and BM Sahai, appeared for Mishra. Additional Advocate General VK Shahi and Advocate Prachish Pandey represented the State. Advocate Shashank Singh appeared for the complainant..[Read order]