Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Respond to allegations, says SC to accused Ashish Mishra

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Ashish Mishra, a former Union minister's son who is an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, to respond to accusations that witnesses are being intimidated.

Mishra is on bail. He was arrested in 2021 after being named as an accused in a case filed by farmers after cars from his father Ajay Mishra's convoy ran over and killed eight people, including farmers, who were among those protesting against the central government's now-scrapped farm laws.

A bench headed by justice Surya Kant asked the counsel representing Mishra to file an affidavit after he denied the allegations. "Now there are some photographs. There are allegations of threatening the witnesses," the bench said.


Appearing on behalf of Mishra, senior advocate Siddharth Dave said the photos had been filed with oblique motive. The bench then gave Mishra four weeks to file an affidavit.

Mishra is accused of killing four farmers who had assembled at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh in 2021 to protest against the now revoked farm laws. He is currently on bail. A total of eight people were killed in the violence.