Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 11: The Lakhimpur Kheri case, which involves the murder of farmers in October 2021, is being handled by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh, which has informed the Supreme Court that the trial will last at least 5 years.
When deciding whether to grant accused Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, bail, the Supreme Court requested a report from the trial court in December 2022.
Ashish Mishra is accused of killing people during the Lakhimpur Kheri riots in October 2021 after reportedly running over farmers who were protesting against farm restrictions with his car.
“The report of the trial court says it will take 5 years for the trial to conclude. The report of Learned Additional Sessions Judge says there are 208 witnesses 171 documents and 27 FSL reports”, the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and V Ramasubramanian read out from the report in the hearing today.
Since Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, the principal attorney for the victims, was not feeling well today, attorney Prashant Bhushan asked for a continuance.
There are two FIRs, the Bench questioned Additional Attorney General of Uttar Pradesh Garima Prashad. Do you know if any of the other case’s suspects have also been detained? Would you please also bring a formal status report on the case?
The bench was making reference to the cross-FIR filed on the purported farmer lynching that claimed the lives of the automobile driver and two other people.
Bhushan proposed that an order for the daily examination of important witnesses be made as the bench informed the counsels of the progress report submitted by the First Additional Sessions Judge in Lakhimpur.
“There will be practical difficulties in that. If you speed this up then this court will have to be tried at the cost of all other cases. That is why we asked the trial court.” the bench added.
Mishra was initially granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on February 10, 2022, but it was later overturned by a Supreme Court panel that included the then-CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli in April 2022 after it was noted that the High Court had ignored important factors and taken into account irrelevant ones. The High Court was then remanded in custody over the bail application. The order was issued by the Supreme Court in response to an appeal filed by the kin of the farmers who were killed in the crime.
Following the Supreme Court’s remand, the High Court denied the bail motion on July 26 after rehearing the case.
