Lakhimpur Kheri case | Supreme Court to hear on March 16 plea challenging bail for Ashish Mishra

The Supreme Court has scheduled for March 16 the hearing of an appeal filed by families of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri against bail granted to an accused, the son of a Union Minister. The court was unable to take up the matter on March 15 as the Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana was sitting in a different combination of judges. Justice Surya Kant, who was part of the Bench in November that had appointed a retired High Court judge to monitor the time-bound probe into the incident and reconstituted the Special Investigation Team, is part of another Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the families, said a witness had been “brutally attacked” and threatened with reference to the ruling BJP’s recent electoral win in the Assembly elections. The families have argued that the decision of the Allahabad High Court to grant bail to prime accused Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, was erroneous and based on “totally extraneous reasons.” “All the considerations settled by the Supreme Court in law, like whether the accused can influence witnesses or tamper with evidence while out on bail, were ignored by the High Court,” Mr. Bhushan had submitted in court on an earlier occasion. He had said that other accused in the case, encouraged by Mr. Ashish Mishra’s bail, were also seeking bail. The families have argued that Mr. Ashish Mishra was released on bail despite the heinous nature of the crime, the character of the overwhelming evidence against the accused in the charge-sheet, the position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and witnesses, the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and repeating the offence and and the possibility of his tampering with the witnesses and obstructing the course of justice.