Lakhimpur Kheri violence: SC pleaded to cancel Ashish Mishra's bail

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of bail of accused Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, who was arrested in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that killed eight people including four farmers.

An application has been filed by advocates Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda in the suo motu case registered on a letter petition sought setting aside of the order dated February 10 of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. They also sought direction to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Justice (retd) Rakesh Jain and the prosecution and Uttar Pradesh police as to why things are being delayed and to furnish a copy of the report comprising the charge sheet.

The plea said that bail order has "manifest error" as the High Court has rest its reasoning on "presumption and guesswork" using the word "might" to arrive at a conclusion that the said crime culminated in a possibility of the driver trying to speed up the vehicle to save himself. "The said conclusion by the High Court justice is unsustainable in law", it said, adding that the reasoning of the High Court judge suffers from the vices of non-application of judicial mind taking recourse to assumptions without the support of direct evidence.

On February 10, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to Ashish Mishra, who had been in custody for the past four months. 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 moved down by an SUV.

A driver and two BJP workers were then 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died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre's now-repealed agri laws. On November 17, last year, the top court had appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the probe by Uttar Pradesh SIT which will also get three IPS officers who are not natives of the state.