NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) today cancelled the bail granted to Union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case noting that the Allahabad High Court (AHC) showed a 'tearing hurry' in granting him bail and that it adopted a 'myopic view' of the evidence.

Hearing a petition filed by complainant Jagjeet Singh, a three-judge SC bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana directed Mishra to surrender within a week and has asked the HC to decide his bail plea afresh after giving due hearing to the victim’s families, who have complained of not being provided sufficient opportunity to oppose the bail plea.

The SC bench said that the victim's families were denied a fair and effective hearing and that they cannot be expected to simply sit on the fence and watch from far, especially when they have valid grievances. 

The bench took a very strict stand on the bail granted by a single-judge bench of AHC to Mishra on February 10 saying that it had lost sight of the principles which governed a court's discretion when deciding if bail has to be granted or not while considering the gravity of the offences.

The SC bench has ordered the AHC to decide the bail plea of the accused within a period of three months.

The bench went further to note that the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, if true as per allegations, was an 'awakening cal' to the state authorities to reinforce adequate protection for the life, liberty, and properties of the witnesses and those who were deceased.

Eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021, when violence erupted during farmer's protests against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area.

Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Mishra was allegedly seated, according to the UP Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. Mishra went absconding after the incident but was later arrested after a huge outcry by the farmers, he spent four months in custody had walked free two days after he was granted bail.