New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday referred to the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence matter and questioned the detailed examination of evidence like postmortem report while granting bail to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in the case.
"How can the judge go into the post mortem. We don't approve this 'nonsense'....sorry for using the word nonsense... but we don't want all this irrelevant factors to be considered," said Chief Justice NV Ramana who was leading a special bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
We are hearing a bail matter, we do not want to prolong. This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc. is unnecessary for the question of bail, the bench observed. It also reserved its verdict on the plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to Ashish Mishra in the case.
Once you cancel the bail, no court will touch it, said the advocate representing Mishra while responding to the observations over the grant of bail. The bench wondered whether the cancellation of bail by the Apex Court would mean the suspect will not be able to get bail for lifelong. Once we cancel bail you won't get bail lifelong or what, the CJI said.
The state government submitted that the accused was 'not at flight risk' when the bench observed why the state was aggravating such a grave issue. "We don't deny that state government is cooperating. We requested a judge to monitor. You obliged. The thing is that in such a grave situation you are aggravating the situation.
Also read: 'Will quit politics if opposition proves allegations': Ajay Mishra 'Teni'
The advocate representing Uttar Pradesh maintained that all witnesses have been granted protection. "It's a grave offence. The bail is granted on the gravity of offence. We can't get into that. What we could do was to assess if he was at flight risk which he didn't appear to," the state government said.
Senior advocate Dushayant Dave and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the farmers, sought cancellation of the bail alleging that the high court overlooked the probe report and went by the FIR while granting the relief to the accused. While granting bail, the HC had observed that no firearm injury was found on the body of the deceased or any other person as per the postmortem report and that the driver might have sped up to save himself from protestors gathered in large numbers.
On March 16, the top court had sought responses of the Uttar Pradesh government and Ashish Mishra, on a plea challenging the grant of bail to him. It had also directed the state government to ensure protection of witnesses after the counsel, appearing for farmers, referred to the attack on a key witness on March 10.
On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area. Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the UP Police FIR.
Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre's now-repealed agricultural reform laws.
WATCH - Odisha MLA's 'Lakhimpur Kheri' moment
(with Agency inputs)
