The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted bail to 12 persons accused of involvement in the violence at Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021.

The court said that their case was on a better footing than that of the main accused person, former Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra. The Supreme Court granted interim bail to Mishra on January 25, 2023, and made the order absolute on July 22.

The violence in Lakhimpur Kheri took place during a protest against the Centre’s agricultural laws that have now been repealed. Protestors alleged that a vehicle belonging to Mishra ran over a group of demonstrators, leaving four of them dead.

The High Court on Tuesday gave bail to Ankit Das, Nandan Singh Bisht, Latif alias Kale, Satyam Tripathi alias Satya Prakash Tripathi, Shekhar Bharti, Dharmendra Singh Banjara, Ashish Pandey, Rinku Rana, Ullas Kumar Trivedi alias Mohit Trivedi, Lavkush, Sumit Jaiswal and Shishupal.

Justice Krishan Pahal noted that there was a “cross-version” to the case as well, referring to the killings of Bharatiya Janata Party workers Shubham Mishra and Shyam Sunder Nishad, and car driver Hari Om Mishra, during the violence.

The defence also told the court that the trial was moving “at a snail’s pace” and that only seven out of 114 witnesses had been examined so far.

The court, while granting bail, said it was not the case of the prosecution “that applicants might tamper with or otherwise adversely influence the investigation, or that they might intimidate witnesses before or during the trial”. It also said there was no indication that the accused had misused interim bail that had earlier been granted to them.

The High Court directed the accused persons not to tamper with evidence and to remain present before court when required.