Uttar Pradesh Police has given a clean chit to Ashish Mishra, son of former Union Minister Ajay Mishra, in the case of threatening witnesses in the famous Lakhimpur Kheri violence. During the hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday, the police said that Ashish Mishra was not involved in intimidating witnesses in the Lakhimpur Kheri case. The next hearing of the case is to be held next month.
The police told the Supreme Court that its investigation has not found any evidence to show that Ashish Mishra or his father, former Union Minister Ajay Mishra, were involved in intimidating witnesses in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana was hearing the bail plea of Ashish.
Investigation completed, no evidence found: Police
Ashish is still out on bail and the court is monitoring the progress of the hearing of this case. The bench was informed about the status report presented by the state, according to which the investigation into the FIR alleging intimidation of witnesses has been completed and no evidence was found against Ashish to convict him.
The court took on record the contents of the status report and noted that a charge sheet had been filed against a person named Amandeep Singh and the competent court had taken cognizance of it. However, with regard to the alleged role of Ajay Mishra alias Teni, Ashish Mishra and others, the investigation concluded that they were not involved in the alleged case. The status report states that 64 witnesses are yet to be examined. The matter will be heard next month.
2 weeks time for additional affidavit
The bench gave the complainant two weeks’ time to file an additional affidavit in response to the status report. UP Police had registered an FIR in October last year on charges of intimidating witnesses. This step was taken after the Supreme Court strongly criticized the police because the police had not taken any action on the complaint of Baljinder Singh, in which he had said that he was threatened to withdraw his statement.
The police did not accept this argument and said that the witness did not come forward to record his statement. Then the court directed a senior officer to go to the complainant and record his statement. Later, Lakhimpur’s Assistant Superintendent of Police traced the complainant in Muktsar, Punjab and recorded his statement. Later, a case was registered for crimes under sections 195-A, 506 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.
This case is related to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident of October 3, 2021 in Uttar Pradesh, in which 8 people, including 4 farmers, died. The violence had erupted when vehicles of the convoy allegedly belonging to Ashish Mishra had crushed the protesting farmers. Ashish is facing trial in that case and is currently out on bail granted by the Supreme Court.
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