From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana on Tuesday declared to set up a bench to hear on Wednesday a plea challenging the grant of bail by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union MoS for Home Ajay Mishra, in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence leaving eight, including four farmers, dead on October 3 last year.
The Bench took note of the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for some farmers, that there was an attack on one of the prime witnesses of the case last week.
He told the court that the people who attacked the witness threatened that now the BJP has won the Assembly elections in the state and they will take care of him. He said other co-accused persons are also seeking bail relying on the High Court granting bail to Ashish Mishra.
The CJI said he would constitute the bench which had heard the case earlier and list it for hearing on Wednesday. On March 11, the top court had agreed to list the hearing on Tuesday on a plea to cancel Ashish Mishra’s bail.
Three family members of farmers who were killed in the violence have sought a stay on the February 10 bail order of the high court, saying the verdict was unsustainable in the eyes of law as there has been no meaningful and effective assistance by the state to the court in the matter .
Recently, another plea seeking cancellation of bail of Ashish Mishra was filed by advocates Shiv Kumar Tripathi and C S Panda on whose letter the apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident.
###
