NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a reply from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea for bail moved by Ashish Mishra, the prime accused and son of a Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, related to killings of six farmers in October, last year.
A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and M M Sundresh issued notice to the state government and the victims and put the matter for consideration on September 26.
Mishra challenged validity of the Allahabad High Court's orde of July 26, rejecting his bail application.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Ranjit Kumar represented Mishra before the bench.
The counsel claimed the Supreme Court had earlier on April 18 cancelled Mishra's bail, saying the High Court did not hear the victim.
Giving background of the case, Rohatgi said the first informant against Mishra had denied he was an eyewitness to the incident.
Mishra was first arrested on October 9, after the Supreme Court took cognisance of a letter petition --- seeking fair investigation --- with regard to the October 3, 2021 incident.
However, the High Court on February 10 granted him bail, relying upon, among other things, post mortem reports purportedly showing no bullet injuries, contrary to claims in the FIR.
On a plea by the victims, the top court in April cancelled the bail and asked Mishra to surrender within a week, saying the High Court did not consider judicial precedents on parameters of bail and showed "tearing hurry" in passing its order.
The top court had also noted the victims were denied a fair and effective hearing to oppose the bail application.
