Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on Thursday.
Last month, Justice Rajeev Singh had reserved his verdict in the bail application.
The counsel appearing on behalf of the Union minister’s son had told the court that his client was innocent and there was no evidence against him that he incited the driver of a vehicle to crush the farmers. Opposing the plea, Additional Advocate General V K Shahi had said that at the time of the incident, Ashish was in the car that mowed down the farmers.
On October 3, eight people died in the violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against the farm laws. They were allegedly knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers. Infuriated farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver. A journalist was also killed in the incident.
Farmers had claimed that Ashish was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father.
Ashish was arrested in the case on October 9. Later, the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a 5,000-page charge-sheet before a local court, naming Ashish as prime accused in the case. In November, a trial court had rejected his bail application, after which he moved the High Court.
-with PTI inputs
