SC disappointed with UP police probe into Lakhimpur Kheri Violence

To ensure no mix up of evidence ; Says the court

The Supreme Court expressed its dissatisfaction over the handling of the case that took place on October 3 in Lakhimpur Kheri where the Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra run over the farmers and a violence erupted in which eight people including four farmers and a local journalist were killed. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana berating the Uttar Pradesh government over poor progress in the investigation said that “We don’t want to add to political undertones. Let a retired (High Court) judge monitor the case.”

“There is nothing in the status report except saying that some more witnesses examined. We gave 10 days. The lab reports also have not come. It's not going the way we expected," the Chief Justice said. The Supreme Court had asked the Yogi Adityanath government to list in a status report how many had been arrested and on what charges.

The judges also pointed out that it appeared that two overlapping FIRs in the case were aimed at protecting the accused, Ashish Mishra. “To ensure there is no mix up of evidence in the case, we are inclined to appoint a former judge of a different high court to monitor the probe in the case,” the court said and suggested the names of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain (retired) or justice Ranjit Singh (retired) from Punjab and Haryana High Court to oversee the ongoing investigation. The two FIRs are to be investigated separately said the Chief Justice.

The government revealed that the local journalist, Raman Kashyap was not killed by the farmers but died after he was crushed by the offending vehicle. A total of eight people were killed after which a violence erupted over the killing of the farmers. The Supreme Court asked the UP government for a separate report on the killing of four more persons. The police have so far arrested some of the accused, including Ashish Mishra son of Union minister of State for home Ajay Mishra. The judges also enquired over how many mobiles had been identified on the spot and the seizure of Ashish Mishra’s phone.

Harish Salve on questioned by Justice Hima Kohli on identification of the accused’s phone said “There are eyewitnesses. There is clinching proof that these accused were at incident site. Through CCTV footage.” A bench led by Chief Justice VN Ramana and justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli was hearing the matter in which the apex court had on October 26 directed the Yogi Adityanath government to provide protection to witnesses under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018.