Lakhimpur Kheri case: Ashish Misra walks out of jail after Supreme Court grants bail

Ashish Misra, the key accused in the violence that broke out during farmers’ protest in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, walked out of jail on Friday.

Ashish Misra, the son of Union Minister and BJP leader Ajay Kumar Misra, walked out of the Lakhimpur Kheri jail, two days after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail for eight weeks.

In the orders passed on Wednesday, January 25, the Supreme Court said Misra cannot stay in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and its adjoining areas and asked him to leave UP within a week.

According to the apex court’s order, Misra would have to surrender his passport and mark his attendance at the police station in the jurisdiction of his new location during the bail period.

The court also warned Misra and his family members against influencing witnesses, violation of which would lead to the cancellation of his bail. “If it is found that Misra is trying to delay the trial, it will be a valid ground to cancel his bail,” the court said in its order.

On October 3, 2021, eight people were killed after violence erupted during a farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Lakhimpur.

While four of the dead were people in cars that were part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP deputy CM, the four others were farmers.

While farmers’ outfits alleged that Ashish Misra was inside a car that ran over the four farmers, the Union minister’s son denied the claims. Ashish Misra was arrested six days later, on October 9, for the violence.

The SIT probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence said that there was a conspiracy to murder protesting farmers. Ashish Misra’s son Ajay Misra had blamed anti-social elements disguised as farmers for the incident.