Supreme Court pulls up UP govt for not arresting Ashish Mishra; unsatisfied with probe

In a big development on Friday, the Supreme Court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for not arresting Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur violence case. A division bench of CJI NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli was hearing a plea based on the letter written by advocates Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda. Appearing for the UP government, Queen's Counsel Harish Salve stressed that the rigours of law will be applied against Mishra if he doesn't turn up before the police at 11 am on October 9 as per the notice. 

Observing that Mishra has been charged under IPC Section 302, the CJI said that he should be treated like any other person accused in a murder case. When the senior advocate highlighted that the post-mortem of the deceased farmers did not show any gunshot injury, CJI Ramana maintained that this was not a ground for not taking the Union MoS Home Ajay Mishra's son into custody. Justice Kohli noted that "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

Thereafter, the CJI remarked, "What is the message that we are sending? In normal circumstances, if 302 case (murder case) is registered what will police do? Go and arrest the accused!" 

Commenting that the SIT formed to solve this case consists only of local officers, he reckoned that a proper probe may not be conducted. While Queen's Counsel Harish Salve made it clear that the bench can hand over the case to the CBI if it is not content with the progress of the investigation, the CJI responded, "We have respect for you. We hope the state will take necessary steps due to the sensitivity of the issue. we are not making comments. CBI is not a solution for reasons known to you".

While acknowledging that the Yogi Adityanath-led government filed a status report of the probe, the bench asserted that it was not satisfied by the steps taken by the former. It added, "Counsel assures he will satisfy the court and also apprise the court of an alternative agency which can conduct the probe". The matter will now come up for hearing after the Dussehra vacation on October 20. 

Lakhimpur violence probe

Violence broke out in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3 leading to the death of 8 persons including 4 farmers.  Immediately after the horrific incident, UP CM Yogi Adityanath promised that the state government will expose the elements involved in the incident and take strict action against them. As per the FIR lodged by the UP police on Monday, Union MoS Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra and 15-20 unknown accused persons have been booked under IPC Sections 120B, 147, 148, 149, 279, 302, 304A and 338. 

Apart from an SIT, the state government constituted a single-member Commission of Inquiry of Justice (retd.) Pradeep Kumar Srivastava to probe the Lakhimpur violence. As per a notification issued on October 6, the commission has to complete its probe within a period of two months. Moreover, the UP police formed a 9-member monitoring committee led by DIG (Headquarters) Upendra Agrawal in connection with this case. So far, the police have arrested two suspects- Luvkush and Ashish Pandey.