Reconstitution of the Special Investigation Team to handle the ongoing Lakhimpur Kheri case involving death of four protesting farmers
The earlier Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the case of an SUV mowing down four protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri consisted of local police officials had given rise to concerns of biases; hence the Supreme court has reconstituted the team with three IPS officers not from UP, but in the states cadre.
A retired Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court has been directed to monitor the case closely.
The last hearings at the Supreme Court had given rise to probable biases; hence it was in favor of proper judicial monitoring of the investigation being conducted.
The Court had even gone further to accuse the Uttar Pradesh Government is trying to protect & shield all the accused arrested with relation to the Mowing case.
The four farmers were mowed down by an SUV allegedly by Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra during the Farmers’ rally protesting against the central government’s bill passing three farm laws not agreeable to the farmers.
The Supreme Court has stated that they needed proper monitoring by a retired Judicial judge not from the state of Uttar Pradesh so as not to leave any room for biases.
The Supreme court has therefore directed Judge (Retd.) Rakesh Kumar Jain from the Punjab & Haryana High Court will monitor the case closely & expedite the investigation.
The petition plea for reconstitution of the (SIT) including a court Monitored investigation, was heard by a bench consisting of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice Suryakant & Justice Hima Kohli stated that in such cases, not only the complainants should receive justice, but justice should be seen done by the general nation as a whole.
The Bench also added that the earlier SIT was mainly constituted of a lower & middle level of police officers belonging locally to Lakhimpur Kheri itself.
The earlier SIT had been criticized by opposition parties & the society as the team being locally constituted led to the belief that there certainly would be biases in favor of the arrested accused.
Priyanka Gandhi had also voiced the opinion that it seems that the Uttar Pradesh government was supporting the accused parties who had played havoc while mowing down innocent protesting farmers.
The Supreme Court had already reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh Government regarding the investigation of the mowing by an SUV was certainly not up to the mark.