SC to hear on Monday plea seeking cancellation of Ashish Mishra's bail

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea challenging the grant of bail to Ashish Mishra son of Union minister Ajay Mishra in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that had left eight people including four farmers deadA special bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had on March 30 directed the Uttar Pradesh government to respond by April 4 to the two reports of a retired judge monitoring the SIT probe in the case suggesting cancellation of bail to Ashish MishraThe top court noted the monitoring judge had written to the state government to seek cancellation of bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra in connection with the caseThere are two letters sent by the SIT to the Additional chief secretary home of the Uttar Pradesh government by the monitoring judge who had written to the state to file appeal in SC to cancel bail of main accused Ashish Mishra the bench had saidSenior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for the state government had then informed the bench that the Additional Secretary Home had said he did not receive the lettersThe bench had then asked Jethmalani to go through the reports submitted by the SIT and respond by April 4Prior to that the state government had said the decision to challenge the grant of bail was pending consideration by the relevant authoritiesThe top court had appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to supervise on a daytoday basis the Uttar Pradesh SITs probe in the Lakhimpur Kheri violenceThe state government said in accordance with the orders of the court the families of all the victims of Lakhimpur violence case and all the witnesses whose statements were recorded under Section 164 by a magistrate have been receiving continuous security under the Witness Protection Scheme of 2018On March 16 the top court had sought responses of the UP government and Ashish Mishra on a plea challenging the grant of bail to him It had also directed the state government to ensure protection of witnesses after counsel appearing for farmers referred to the attack on a key witness on March 10On 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 Mauryas visit to the areaFour farmers were mowed down by an SUV in which Ashish Mishra was seated according to the UP police FIR Following the incident the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmersA journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centres nowrepealed agricultural reform lawsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever