Union minister' son bail in UP farmer killing case challenged in SC

Lucknow, Feb 21: The families of the farmers killed in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday moved Supreme Court challenging the bail to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra and the main accused in the case.

On Feb 15, Mishra was released from jail here on Tuesday evening after fulfilling bail conditions pronounced by the Allahabad High Court.

Ashish Mishra had been lodged in the jail since October 10 last year in the case related to the killing of four farmers in the violence that had erupted in the course of farmers' agitation in Tikonia in the district.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had named Ashish Mishra as the main accused in the knocking down of the farmers incident in its charge sheet submitted to the court.

Farmers were staging protest in Tikonia viage on October 3 last year against the visit of deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Ajay Mishra's native Banbir village when four of the agitating farmers were crushed under the wheels of a convoy of cars. In the subsequent violence, four others comprising two BJP workers, driver and a journalist were killed.

Voting will take place in eight assembly segments in Lakhimpur Kheri in the fourth phase on February 23.