Lakhimpur Kheri violence: SC directs UP govt to grant protection to witnesses, record statements expeditiously
On October 3, the lives of 8 people were claimed, four of them being farmers protesters who were allegedly mowed down by the vehicles in the convoy of Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra.
FollowThe Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide protection to the witnesses in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and also record statements of witnesses expeditiously.
Meanwhile, the Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli adjourned the next hearing in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case to November 8.
On October 3, the lives of 8 people were claimed, four of them being farmers protesters who were allegedly mowed down by the vehicles in the convoy of Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra.
During the hearing, the senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that out of 68 witnesses, statements of 30 witnesses have been recorded under and 23 persons claim to be eyewitnesses of the incident.
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The Court then asked, “Case is there were hundreds of farmers in a rally. Only 23 people were there?”, Bar and Bench reported.
“We gave an advertisement. The people who saw the ones in the car etc are already there. A large amount of digital media has been recovered. There are overlapping videos,” was Salve's reply.
Not satisfied with this reply, Justice Kant noted, “You said there were 4,000 or 5,000 people. Mostly they were locals. Post the incident, most of them have been agitating for an inquiry. Accessibility and identification of such persons in the vehicle should not be a great issue,” Bar and Bench report quoted.
The Supreme Court Bench has also asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file replies on the investigation on the killing of a journalist Raman Kashyap and one Shyam Sundar in Lakhimpur Kheri violence. It also asked forensic labs to expedite the process of submitting reports relating to videos of the incident.
