On Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case of 2021, to reply to the allegations that he had violated his bail conditions. Mishra, the son of Ajay Mishra, a BJP leader and former union minister, is alleged to have tried to threaten the witnesses and violated the court order that barred him from entering Lakhimpur Kheri except to attend the trial.
The bench of Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan mentioned the complaint regarding threats to witnesses and pictorial forms pointing out bail breaches. The court asked Ashish Mishra to submit an affidavit of not less than thirty pages addressing these statements within four weeks. When asked about the allegations by the petitioner, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, who appeared for Mishra, dismissed the same while arguing that the photographs produced by the petitioner be disregarded as fake. He said, pointing at the photo: “It is not me.” It was being used for external processes, not for the court, he argued, according to the court record.
The incident that led to the case began on October 3, 2021, in Lakhimpur Kheri, where Mishra allegedly ordered his convoy to run over 4 protesting farmers against the now-repealed farm laws. The Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the case with 14 directions on January 25, 2023: they limited his movements and barred him from intimidating witnesses. First prohibited from visiting Uttar Pradesh, the court permitted them to live in Lucknow from July 2023 after his father was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections and could not occupy his Delhi house. However, the restriction prohibiting anyone from going to Lakhimpur Kheri, apart from legal matters, is still in effect.
The last application, filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of one of the victims, has accused Mishra of exerting his political control and influence over Lakhimpur and of attempting to pressure witnesses, which threatens to scupper the case altogether. The petitioner submitted a statement to the effect that if this court allows him to file it in a sealed envelope, he will produce electronic proofs of such threats received by him at the said e-mail address. The hearing has been set for four different weeks.
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