The Supreme Court is continuing its suo moto hearing of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case today. In the previous hearing, it had asked why only four witnesses had recorded their statement so far.
It also directed the SIT to provide relevant protection to vulnerable witnesses and record their statements under Section 164 of CrPc. This is important especially because the prime accused Ashish Mishra is an influential person, being the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra.
Today, Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for UP government said that out of 68 witnesses, 30 have recorded their statements under Sec 164, and 23 claim to be eyewitnesses. None of the witnesses were injured, replied Salve to the CJI’s question.
The CJI asked how there were only 23 eyewitnesses, a point reiterated by Justice Kant who said “your case is there was crowd of 4000-5000 persons who are all local people”, and since the agitation is still continuing in the public limelight there should be identification of more witnesses.
Salve then said that “all 16accused have been identified”. The Bench has directed the state to record statements of all 164 witnesses, and also to provide witness protection. The Bench mentioned two petitions of individuals not having their complaints investigated properly and directed the state to file separate replies.
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