Respond to charge of threatening witnesses, SC tells Ashish Mishra

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Ashish Mishra, son of former Minister Ajay Mishra, to respond to allegation that witnesses were being threatened in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, that claimed eight lives.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Mishra, to file an affidavit clarifying his stand after he refuted the allegations. A counsel appearing for one of the complainants told the SC that he had filed a plea stating that witnesses were being threatened by Mishra.

Dave denied the allegations saying it was an “endless process”. “It’s not me in the photographs. This is not for this court, this is for outside,” Dave said. The SC then asked Mishra to file an affidavit denying the allegations within four weeks.

On July 22, the top court had granted bail to Ashish Mishra and restricted his movement to Delhi or Lucknow.