“Last night there was an attack on one of the prime witnesses of the (Lakhimpur Kheri) case,” advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the Supreme Court, on Friday, 11 March.
His remarks came shortly before the plea against bail granted to Lakhimpur-Kheri prime-accused Ashish Mishra was posted for hearing on Tuesday, 15 March by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana.
According to reports and videos doing the rounds of Twitter, a witness in the case, was attacked on Thursday evening amid celebrations by BJP supporters of the saffron party’s sweep in Uttar Pradesh.
Responding to one of the tweets that alleged that the witness was brutally beaten up by BJP workers, the verified Twitter handle of Kheri Police said that a case has been registered at Tikonia police station and legal action is being taken.
The Quint has confirmed that a case has in fact been registered under Sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A source in Kheri police has informed The Quint that inquiry is underway.
As of Friday morning, however, no arrest has been made in the case, the source said. They declined to provide any further details of the victim's involvement with the Lakhimpur Kheri cases.
The incident allegedly took place in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri region, where eight people, including four farmers, were killed on 3 October, 2021, after being run over by a convoy of cars. Union Minister and BJP leader Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, whose car was part of the convoy, had subsequently been charged with murder in connection with the case.
The BJP, meanwhile, went on to win all eight seats in Lakhimpur Kheri, in the results announced on 10 March.
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