Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Ashish Mishra, the son of the union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni,’ the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence was on Thursday granted bail by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.
Ashish Mishra alias Monu was accused of the murder of four farmers and a journalist in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on October 3, 2021. Ashish Mishra is the second accused to be granted bail in the case.
Ashish’s bail application was moved in the Allahabad High Court after his plea was rejected by the lower and session court of Lakhimpur Kheri. Last month, after hearing the plea, the Lucknow bench the High Court had reserved its order.
“Justice Rajeev Singh on Thursday pronounced order and granted bail to Ashish Mishra,” said Additional Advocate General, Vinod Kumar Shahi. Ashish Mishra was lodged in jail since October 11.
While granting bail to Ashish Mishra, the high court questioned the charges against him and rejected the police probe. Defence Counsel Salil Kumar Srivastava said, “During arguments on the bail application, we raised several issues including that Ashish Mishra was falsely implicated as he was not present at the spot. The court today granted bail to Ashish Mishra.”
The Allahabad High Court raised questions about some of the charges listed by the police against Ashish Mishra, including firing at protesters. “Considering the facts and circumstances of the case in toto, it is evident that as per the FIR, the role of firing was assigned to the applicant (Ashish Mishra) for killing the protesters, but during the course of investigation, no such firearm injuries were found either on the body of any of the deceased or on the body of any injured person,” the court said.
The court said Ashish Mishra is accused of inciting the SUV driver to run over farmers. “Thereafter, the prosecution alleged that the applicant provoked the driver of the vehicle for crushing the protesters, however, the driver along with two others, who were in the vehicle, had been killed by the protesters.”
Ashish Mishra, the court said, appeared before the Investigating officer when he was summoned and a charge sheet has already been filed. “In such circumstances, this Court is of the view that the applicant is entitled to be released on bail,” said the high court.
The high court said it “could not shut its eyes to the killing of three persons in the Thar SUV, including the driver, who were killed by the protesters”. Photographs “clearly revealed the brutality of the protesters”, the court said, naming those killed as Hariom Mishra, Shubham Mishra and Shyam Sunder.
Stating that only four accused had been charged, the court said organisers of the protest must help investigators with giving details of others seen beating up the BJP workers.
On October 3, 2021, a convoy of three SUVs, including a Thar owned by Ajay Mishra, ran over a group of farmers assembled at the Tikonia crossing to show black flags to Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was scheduled to visit Ajay Mishra’ village, Baveerpur, in connection with the on-going protest then against three contentious farm laws. The farmers were allegedly protesting over a purported video clip where the Union MoS is heard openly threatening to drag the protesting farmers out of the state. Four farmers and a journalist died and several others were injured. In the violence that followed, the enraged mob lynched two BJP workers and the driver of the Thar SUV. Farmers had also set two vehicles, including the Thar, on fire.
During its investigation, the UP Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested 13 people, including Ashish Mishra, in connection with the killing of the farmers and the journalist.
The SIT, which was investigating the case, on January 3 filed charge-sheet against 14, including Ashish Mishra, in connection with the case. The court had issued notice to the Union Minister’s brother-in-law Virendra Shukla, who was charge-sheeted on charges of destruction of evidence.
Shukla was never arrested by SIT. On January 11, a local court of Lakhimpur Kheri granted bail to Virendra Shukla, when he appeared before the court.
In the case of the lynching of the two BJP workers and the driver, SIT arrested seven people. On January 21, the SIT filed a charge-sheet against four people. The agency cleared three others, who were arrested earlier in the same case, stating that no evidence was found against them.
Bail for Ashish Mishra has sparked strong political reactions with the opposition reviving allegations that the ruling BJP is going all out to protect its own party men. Priyanka Gandhi raised it at a rally and asked: “Why has the minister not been sacked?”
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra questioned how Ashish Mishra qualified for bail. “3 basic principles of bail are that accused should NOT be able to: 1. Intimidate witnesses 2. Destroy evidence 3. Be flight risk. How does Ashish Mishra satisfy bail condition 1? Sitting minister’s son, arrested only after 3 days, in election season?” she tweeted.