New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 26, directed the Uttar Pradesh government to grant protection to the witnesses of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
On October 3, four farmers were killed after having been mowed down by vehicles in the convoy of Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. In the clashes after this, four more, including a journalist, was killed.
The bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana on Tuesday, asked the Uttar Pradesh government, represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and Garima Prasad, to record the statements of other relevant witnesses before judicial magistrates under section 164 of the CrPC.
“We direct the district judge concerned to entrust the task of recording of evidence under section 164 of the CrPC to the nearest judicial magistrates available,” in case of difficulties in recording witness statements if a magistrate is unavailable, said the bench which also comprised Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
Observing that the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence should not be an unending story, the Supreme Court on October 20 had rapped the Uttar Pradesh government, saying the Adityanath dispensation was “dragging its feet.”
The CJI had, on that day, questioned Uttar Pradesh government’s counsel, senior advocate Harish Salve regarding the state government’s claim that it had examined 44 witnesses. “How many of the accused are in police or judicial custody,” the CJI had asked pointedly. “I can find that out,” responded Salve.
Analysing the court proceedings, V. Venkatesan had written for The Wire, “Then came the disclosure that only four of the 10 accused are in police custody. For the others, police custody was granted for three days, and they are now in judicial custody. Of the 10, only statements of four have been recorded.”
LiveLaw has reported that on Tuesday, the apex court expressed surprise that only 23 eyewitnesses have been traced out of gathering of hundreds of protesters.
The apex court orally told Salve that the investigation team must try to identify more eyewitnesses.
The bench asked Salve to to convey its concerns to forensic labs and experts on preparation of reports on electronic evidence of the incident.
The top court, meanwhile, asked the state government to also file its report on two complaints including the one related to the lynching of a journalist.
The state is directed to file separate replies in the cases, the bench said and fixed the plea for further hearing on November 8.