New Delhi: The Supreme Court has extended the interim bail granted to Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party strongman Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish in the case where farmers protesting at Lakhimpur Kheri were mowed down in 2021.
In total, eight people were killed in the violence which was triggered when Ashish’s convoy allegedly ran over protesting farmers. The protest was against the Central laws that had been imposed and which were eventually withdrawn in 2021. Incidentally, farmers are back at Delhi’s borders, as their key demands from that time are yet to be fulfilled.
LiveLaw has reported that a bench of Justices Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan noted on February 12 that since the last date of hearing on September 26, 2023, the apex court has received no report from the trial court on the progress of the case.
The Supreme Court thus asked the registry to get a report.
The court had earlier said that Ashish could stay neither in the Delhi National Capital Territory nor in UP for the eight weeks during which his interim bail will last and that he could enter Uttar Pradesh only to attend trial court proceedings. It later relaxed these conditions.
First arrested in October 2021, Ashish had to surrender in April 2022 after the Supreme Court cancelled the Allahabad high court’s February 2022 bail to him.