PMO tried to save Ashish Mishra, says AAP

‘From PMO to CMO … everyone defended his bail’

Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bhardwaj | Photo Credit: File photo

 

The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) tried to save Ashish Mishra, prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case and the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra.

“BJP government from the top to the bottom, from the PMO to CMO to the investigating officer… everyone defended the bail of a murderer, who killed farmers. They conspired to save the murderer,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said while addressing a press conference in Delhi on Monday. 

Mr. Bharadwaj was reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to set aside Mr. Mishra’s bail.

“Today, every gunda, murderer, and rapist thinks that ‘if only I were in BJP, the party would save me’. It [BJP] feels that standing with murderers and rapists is actual patriotism,” Mr. Bharadwaj said.

He said that rapists or murders should join the BJP, because the party will not just honour them, but also take out a tiranga yatra for them. “They did so in Kathua. In Hathras as well, the whole administration came out to protect the rapists. When it came to Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the party took out a whole rally to claim his innocence,” he said. 

The senior AAP leader alleged the Prime Minister deployed his best men to defend the bail of a “murderer”, pointing out that ex-solicitor general Ranjit Kumar and BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani represented Ashish Mishra and the Uttar Pradesh government respectively. 

“Supreme Court reprimanded the UP government and police by saying they’re deliberately putting hurdles in the investigation to protect their Union MoS & his son,” Mr. Bharadwaj added. 

He also claimed that a retired Haryana High Court judge, who is heading the SIT, had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to appeal against the bail, but the BJP did not listen to him.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli directed him to surrender within a week.

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s setting aside Allahabad High Court’s decision to grant bail to Ashish Mishra, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which spearheaded the agitation that led to the withdrawal of the Centre’s contentious farm laws, said, “there is no justification left for Ajay Mishra Teni to continue in the Union Cabinet.”

The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled Ashish Mishra’s bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and asked him to surrender within a week. It said the victims were denied “a fair and effective hearing” in the Allahabad High Court which adopted a “myopic view of the evidence”.

When contacted, a BJP spokesperson did not offer a comment.