The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday denied bail to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, reported Live Law.

The court said that there was a possibility that he may influence witnesses if he were to be granted bail.

Justice Krishna Pahal had reserved its order on the matter on July 15.

Eight persons, including four farmers, were killed on October 3 after violence broke in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh during a protest against the Centre’s agricultural laws that have now been repealed. Farmer bodies had alleged that a vehicle belonging to Ashish Mishra had run over a group of demonstrators.

Mishra had been arrested on October 9. He walked out of jail on February 15 after the Allahabad High Court granted him bail on February 10.

Families of those killed had challenged the bail order in the Supreme Court, which overturned the High Court verdict and cancelled Mishra’s bail on April 18. He is currently lodged in Lakhimpur prison.

The Supreme Court had directed the Allahabad High Court to assign another bench to hear Mishra’s bail plea.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had said that the High Court had granted bail to Mishra by taking into account irrelevant considerations.

“The denial of victims to be heard and the tearing hurry shown by the High Court merits the setting aside of bail order,” the three-judge bench had said. “Thus, we remand the matter back to High Court for fresh consideration of the bail application of [the] accused [person].”

Justice Kant had observed that victims have an “unbridled right” to take part in all the proceedings, including bail hearings.