Lakhimpur trial likely to take 5 years to end, Supreme Court told

A trial into the mowing down of four farmers and a journalist in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2021 -- a case in which Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra “Teni”, is an accused -- will take at least five years to complete, according to a report prepared by the district court in Uttar Pradesh that was shared with the Supreme Court.

The top court asked for the report last month while hearing the bail application of Ashish Mishra, who was arrested in October 2021 as the vehicle which ran over the five victims allegedly belonged to him.

Indicating the contents of the district court’s report, a bench of justices Surya Kant and V Ramasubramanian on Wednesday said: “The report says the trial will take at least five years as there are more than 200 witnesses.”

Mishra has sought bail on the grounds that the trial will not end soon as only 98 witnesses have been examined so far. The bench posted the matter for hearing on January 19, and asked the UP government to indicate whether the other co-accused in the same crime were also in custody.

The state filed an affidavit on Tuesday indicating the current status of trial against four people including Mishra. “Trial against the said named accused (Mishra) has commenced before the court of first additional district judge (ADJ), Kheri. Charges were framed on December 5, 2022, and the case is fixed for evidence on January 13. Investigation against unknown persons is still ongoing.”

Appearing for the victims, advocate Prashant Bhushan told the court that this was a case where the accused wielded tremendous influence, and bail should not be granted till the prime witnesses in the case were examined. “The trial court must be asked to conduct trial on a day-to-day basis and first examine the material eyewitnesses and then the formal witnesses,” he said.

However, the bench was not too keen to order this as it observed, “The larger issue has to be kept in mind. Any timelines fixed may cause serious prejudice to the prosecution.” Bhushan requested the court to take up the matter on January 19 as the victims were being led by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was reported to be unwell.

When the matter was heard last month, the top court had observed: “How long should someone be kept inside? Keeping him indefinitely, will it not be pre-judging his guilt?” In order to balance the rights of the accused with that of the victims, the bench then sought a report from the trial court to know the estimated time for completing trial.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Siddharth Dave, appearing for Mishra, opposed the request for conducting a day-to-day trial. Rohatgi said that,in that event, the bail application should be heard first.

Mishra argued in his bail plea that there was doubt over his presence at the incident spot as he was at a “dangal” organised at a place nearly 4km away. Further, he submitted that this was a case of cross-FIR as three people inside the car were killed in the mob violence that followed the incident, but this complaint had not progressed despite a charge sheet being filed in February last year.