The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that a decision to challenge the grant of bail by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that left eight people, including four farmers, dead is pending consideration before the relevant authorities. It rejected the allegations that a witness was attacked, stressing that it was an altercation over Holi colours.

In its reply affidavit filed on the appeal filed by family members of the victims of Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the state said that the Allahabad High Court order as well as its counter-affidavit would demonstrate it has vehemently opposed the bail application of Mishra. The state government said that an incident of March 10, in which one of the witnesses in the Lakhimpur violence case was beaten by some miscreants, resulting in the registration of Case is sought to be “conflated and connected” with the farmer deaths of October 3, 2021.