Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Ashish Mishra, son of MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni, gets bail

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Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, and the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case has been granted bail. He was granted bail by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court. 

Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year, six days after the mowing down of four farmers, by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing the incident. 

The Lucknow bench of the court had reserved its order on January 18 on Ashish's plea after concluding the hearing through video conferencing. 

The counsel appearing on behalf of Ashish 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 Mishra was in the car that mowed down the farmers.

After hearing the pleas, the bench of Justice Rajeev Singh had reserved its order. On Thursday, he was granted bail in the case.

Earlier on October 3, eight people including four farmers, three BJP workers and a journalist covering the incident, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area to attend an event. 

Ashish was arrested after a massive protest by farmers who alleged that the Minister's son was behind the killings. He was named as a prime accused by the SIT in its chargesheet. 

The bail order to Ashish comes in the midst of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Polling in Lakhimpur Kheri will take place in the fourth phase on February 23. 

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