Ashish Mishra was granted bail by the Allahabad HC
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Tuesday said he will constitute a special bench to hear petitions seeking cancellation of bail granted to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra and an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Prashant Bhushan said a prime witness to the incident was brutally attacked and there have been veiled threats since BJP won the polls in UP that those deposing against the accused “would be taken care of ”. He apprehended that granting bail to Mishra would encourage others to seek bail on the ground of parity. CJI Ramana said he would constitute the special bench on Wednesday.
The Allahabad HC had on February 10 granted bail to to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra and an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. On November 17, a bench of the CJI and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had appointed retired Punjab and Haryana HC judge Rakesh Kumar Jain to supervise the probe and reconstituted the special investigation team by inducting three senior IPS officers “to ensure transparency, fairness and absolute impartiality” in the probe into the October 3 incidents, when a vehicle allegedly belonging to Mishra ploughed through protesting farmers resulting in four deaths. Enraged farmers had lynched three occupants of the vehicle.
The bench said, “While investigating such offences, justice must not only be done, but also be seen and perceived to be done. We, thus, deem it appropriate to reconstitute the SIT hereafter to preserve the faith and trust of people in the administration of the justice system.”
It appointed UP cadre IPS officer S B Shiradkar, who is a native of Maharashtra, to head the SIT and drafted in two other UP cadre IPS officers, also hailing from outside the state, into the probe team.
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