New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government once again had a tough day in court today in the case involving farmers run over in Lakhimpur Kheri, allegedly by Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra. The Supreme Court, questioning why there were “only 23 eyewitnesses” to the violence on October 3 in the UP district, ordered the state to gather more witnesses and give them protection.
The Supreme Court, in its order, directed UP to record statements of more witnesses. “If there is any difficulty in recording statements and unavailability of judicial officers, then the nearest district judge has to ensure the availability of a substitute,” the court said.
In the previous hearing last week, the UP government was told sternly by the judges to “dispel the feeling that you are dragging your feet” on the case.
The judges had asked why more witnesses had not been questioned by the UP government. “You have recorded the statements of only four witnesses so far out of 44. Why not more?”, Chief Justice Ramana had questioned.
The court had, even then, ordered the UP government to protect and record the statement of all witnesses and said: “This should not be an unending story”.
Ashish Mishra is accused of running over four farmers during a protest on October 3.
More were killed in the violence that erupted afterwards. The Supreme Court, on the complaint of the families of BJP workers killed in the violence, asked the UP government for a separate report on the killing of four more persons, including a journalist.
Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 11, three days after the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the Uttar Pradesh government’s progress in the case.
The Supreme Court had asked the Yogi Adityanath government to list in a status report how many have been arrested over the killing of eight persons and on what charges. In the last hearing, the court was upset about the report being filed “last-minute”.
Both Ashish Mishra and his father have denied all charges. Mr Mishra told NDTV that the car belonged to his family but neither he nor his son was in it when the incident took place.
With inputs from NDTV
Maharashtra minister makes hero NCB cop turn villain 