On Monday, the Supreme Court recommended appointing a retired judge to monitor the inquiry till the charge sheet is submitted, expressing concern with what it called the “mixing up” of investigations in the cases connected to the occurrences that occurred in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. So far, ten persons have been detained in connection with the case, including Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra.
Justice Hima Kohli, a member of the Bench, proposed the names of Justice (retired) Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and J Rakesh Kumar Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for the UP government, said he would seek directions on the idea. The Bench proposed finding that some of the witnesses in the case involving the murder of the driver and two BJP officials overlapped with those involving the death of the four farmers.
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This was happening, according to Salve, because some of the witnesses who had come forward in the case of the driver’s murder and BJP workers were simultaneously making statements concerning the case of the farmers’ deaths. He stated that when witnesses come forward and request that their evidence be recorded, police cannot refuse them. The senior counsel further said that the mix-up occurred because, while it was first assumed that the journalist had perished in the turmoil that followed the collision, it was subsequently discovered that he had been crushed by the automobiles. As a result, the inquiry had shifted to the FIR filed in connection with the farmer’s death.
However, Justice Surya Kant stated that the journalist’s cause of death was “completely different from what was intended to be conveyed; the impression sought to be made was that this journalist was battered to death.” “They were all crushed by the automobile,” Salve said, adding that “the difficulty is” that there were thousands of people on the scene and that whatever is going on has political connotations.
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“We don’t want any political undertones,” the CJI stated, supporting the court’s decision that a former HC judge oversees the inquiry. The Bench then questioned him on the seizure of the accused’s phones, inquiring why just the phone of crucial defendant Ashish Mishra had been taken.
