RESPONSES FLARES UP ON ASHISH MISHRA RELEASE

(The Quiver) : Ashish Mishra, Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son and the main accused in the killing of protesting farmers in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri , has been released from jail. 

He was granted bail last week by the Allahabad high court  after lower courts rejected requests. Ashish Mishra’s lawyer, Avdesh Kumar Singh, said the court had demanded two sureties of Rs 3 lakh each but imposed no restrictions on him leaving the city.

Ashish Mishra was granted bail on a day when phase one polling for the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh took place, while his release came a day after the second phase. Five more rounds of voting are left, with the last leg scheduled for March 7. Votes for all 403 assembly seats will be counted on March 10.

Responding to his release, Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait told NDTV today the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions who fought against the farm laws, will filev an appeal in the Supreme Court “soon”.

Congress leader Priaynka Gandhi Vadra  and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary  have both also hit out,as Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti has reacted against his release , among others.

On October 3, Ashish Mishra was allegedly driving a Mahindra Thar that ran over four farmers and a journalist at Lakhimpur Kheri during a protest march against three (since scrapped) farm laws. Eight people were killed that day, including two BJP workers who died in the violence that followed. He was arrested only days later after the Supreme Court intervened the hit and run case.