Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister of state (home) Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, has been granted bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case by the Allahabad high court. 

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Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year in relation to the Lakhimpur Kheri case, where at least four farmers and a journalist were mowed down by an SUV during a protest against the now-repealed farm laws. Allegedly, the SUV was a part of Ajay Mishra’s convoy. His son, the prime accused, and several others were booked under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

“Ashish Mishra has been arrested as he was not cooperating during the interrogation and did not answer a few questions,” SIT DIG Upendra Agarwal had said at the time of Mishra’s arrest.

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Ashish Mishra was declared the main accused in the 5000-page chargesheet filed by Special Investigation (SIT) last month. The report added that there was a planned conspiracy to murder the protesting farmers. The number of accused in the case was also increased to 14.

The Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place on October 3. The farmers were protesting ahead of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to Lakhimpur. 

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On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the first time, spoke about the incident. Talking to news agency ANI he said that the Yogi Adityanath government is working transparently in the probe.

“The state government gave its consent for whatever committee the Supreme Court wanted, for whichever judge the Supreme Court wanted for the probe. The state government is working transparently,” Modi said. 

The bail comes on the day Uttar Pradesh assembly elections kicked off.