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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Uttar Pradesh administration for dragging its feet on the Lakhimpur Kheri investigation. The court also said it was thinking of appointing a judge from a different high court to monitor the probe, until a chargesheet is filed.
The bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said on Monday that the probe is “not going the way we expected”, LiveLaw reported. The judges were dissatisfied that forensic lab reports on the video evidence are still unavailable, and said they did not understand why the mobile phones of the accused had not been seized yet.
The apex court was hearing a matter pertaining to the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, in which eight persons including four farmers were killed. Ten people, including Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, have been arrested so far in connection with the case. Ashish was allegedly in one of the cars that mowed down and killed protesting farmers.
“We have seen the status report. There is nothing in the status report. After the last hearing date, we granted 10 days adjournment. Lab reports have not come,” CJI Ramana noted in court. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said the reports would be ready by November 15.
“Only one accused’s phone has been seized. What about others? Have you not seized?Only one accused had mobile phone?” Justice Kohli added. Salve claimed that some of the accused did not have phones as they had thrown them away, but their CDRs have been obtained.
“Where have you said in the status report that the accused have thrown away their phones and their CDRs have been traced?” Justice Kohli asked.
The bench also said that it appeared like the case against those who had attacked protesting farmers was being watered down by clubbing it with the case on the mob violence that followed the farmers’ deaths. The two cases, the judges insisted, must be kept separate, and witness statements be recorded separately.
Justice Surya Kant said that prima facie, it appeared as though one accused was being given benefits by filing overlapping FIRs. “…prima facie it appears that one particular accused is seeking to be given benefit by overlapping two FIRs, you can appreciate very well the fate of the case. Now it is being said that there are two FIRs and the evidence collected in one FIR will be used in another. Evidence in FIR 220 is being collected in a way to protect one accused,” he said. FIR 220 is the one on the mob lynching, while FIR 219 pertains to the farmers’ deaths.
The government’s lawyer claimed that this was not the case, and said that the two cases are being kept separate.
Salve asked the bench for ten days’ time to get the state’s response to the court’s suggestions. The bench adjourned the hearing, and listed it next for Friday (November 12).
When the court had heard the case of October 20, it accused the UP Police of dragging its feet on the investigation, particularly on recording witness statements.
The top court is hearing the matter after two lawyers had written a letter to the CJI seeking a high-level judicial inquiry, also involving the CBI, into the incident.
Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri when a group agitating against the Centre’s three new farm laws was holding a demonstration against the visit of Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on October 3.
Two BJP workers and a driver were beaten to death allegedly by the angry protesters, while a local journalist was also killed in the violence.