Supreme Court orders Lakhimpur Kheri SP to conduct enquiry and submit report; families of victims seek cancellation of Ashish Mishra’s bail

The Supreme Court on Monday (January 20, 2025) directed the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh to conduct an enquiry to verify allegations that Ashish Mishra, son of former Union Minister Ajay Mishra and accused in the Lakhimpuri Kheri killings case, was threatening witnesses.

The younger Mr. Mishra is accused of murder after a sports utility vehicle, allegedly belonging to his convoy, mowed down farmers protesting controversial agricultural laws in a rally at Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh on October 3, 2021.

Before a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the families of some of the victims, initially urged the court to assign the enquiry to a police officer ranked higher than the SP.

“Now he is not in power...” Justice Kant addressed Mr. Bhushan, referring to the accused’s father.

Mr. Bhushan urged the court to cancel Mr. Ashish Mishra’s bail.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Mr. Ashish Mishra, said his client was in the Lok Sabha Secretariat at the time one of the families had alleged he tried to influence them.

Mr. Dave said Mr. Bhushan’s clients timed their allegations to coincide with the Supreme Court hearings of the case.

The Bench directed the Uttar Pradesh counsel to collect the material evidence Mr. Bhushan said would back the allegations against Mr. Ashish Mishra and forward it to the SP.

The court ordered the SP to check the “veracity, genuineness and reliability” of this material and submit a report in four weeks.

Earlier hearings had also seen Mr. Bhushan raise in court the danger of powerful accused trying to influence or threaten witnesses while the trial went on indefinitely. The apex court had refused his plea for a day-to-day trial.

The apex court had granted Mr. Ashish Mishra interim bail in January 2023. At the time of allowing bail, the Supreme Court had underscored that it would continue to “indirectly supervise” the trial.

The court had justified the interim bail as a measure to balance the right of the accused to liberty with the right of the victims to get justice.

In July 2024, the apex court had made absolute the interim bail granted to Mr. Ashish Mishra and underscored the need to expedite the trial proceedings in the case.