Hearing in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case was held again in the Supreme Court today. During the hearing, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, while submitting the status report, told the Supreme Court that out of 68 witnesses, the statements of 30 witnesses have been recorded and 23 people have claimed to be eyewitnesses of the incident. On this, the Supreme Court said that there were hundreds of farmers in the rally and only 23 witnesses turned up? Then Salve replied saying that we have also issued advertisement for testimony. Video evidence has also been found. The investigation continues. Harish Salve said that the UP government can give recorded statements of witnesses in a sealed cover. The CJI said that if you have 23 eyewitnesses, then explore every aspect and possibility and take action.
During the hearing of the case, the Supreme Court said that there was a crowd of 4000-5000 people at the spot, all of whom are locals and even after the incident most of the agitations are taking place. This is what the court has been told. Then there should be no problem in identifying these people. At the same time, Harish Salve told the Supreme Court that the statements of all the witnesses recorded so far can be given in a sealed cover by the UP government.
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In the last hearing also, the Supreme Court had reprimanded the UP government for the delay in recording the statements of witnesses. The court adjourned the proceedings after the UP government sought time to release the statements of the witnesses. The top court had decided to hold the next hearing of the case today that is on October 26. 10 People including Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, have been arrested in this case. The court had started the hearing after two lawyers filed a petition in the matter and demanded a high level inquiry.
On October 3, agitating farmers were crushed to death by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. After this, 4 more people died in the violence that broke out. These included Raman Kashyap, a local journalist and three BJP workers. The matter caught such a political intensity that for several days the state government had banned the entry of leaders in Lakhimpur Kheri. However, later many leaders including Akhilesh Yadav, Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had reached Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the aggrieved farmers.
