New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved the order in the appeal filed by the family members of the deceased in Lakhimpur Kheri violence challenging the order of the Allahabad High Court granting bail to prime accused Ashish Mishra who allegedly mowed down 8 people including four farmers.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli heard the matter at length before reserving its verdict.

Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra was prime accused in Lakhimpur Kheri violence for allegedly killing 8 people. 

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said that the state government has provided extensive security to all 97 witnesses.

The Chief Justice bench has asked Jethmalani to make his stand clear on whether the UP government is supporting or opposing the bail plea.

“When we had asked you on last hearing, you said, the state is opposing the bail, Jethmalani remarked that we are vehemently opposed the bail”,  he replied to the question.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the families of the victims, said that the High Court while granting bail to Mishra failed to consider relevant facts and the order "suffers from the gross non application of mind."

According to Bar and Bench, "The High Court was wrong in considering the question on bullet injury when they drove the car in rash and negligent way," Dave said.

"How can judge go into post mortem etc? We are hearing a bail matter, we don't want to prolong. Prima facie question is whether bail needs to be cancelled or not. We don't want to entertain nonsense questions like which car, post mortem etc. This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc is unnecessary for the question of bail," CJI Ramana said

"Accused went on a route knowing fully well that 10,000 to 15,000 people had gathered therein. Ashish Mishra and his friends raised slogans and crushed the farmers with an intention to kill them. 4 farmers and one journalist died because of this," Dave contended.

Senior Counsel Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Mishra, said that the High Court went into the aspect of bullet injuries because the first information report (FIR) said that there was death due to firearms.

He also said that it was not correct on the part of the victims to claim that they were not heard since they had failed to file a counter-affidavit before the High Court.

On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against the now revoked farm laws. The protesters had impeded the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was planning to attend an event in the area.

A four-wheeler belonging to Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, had allegedly mowed down and killed eight persons, including the protesting farmers.

The Allahabad High Court granted bail to Mishra on February 10, stating that there might have been a possibility that the driver of the vehicle that mowed down the protesting farmers sped up the vehicle to save himself.