Lakhimpur Kheri case trial not ‘slow’, says SC; asks the sessions court to inform him of future developmentsNews WAALI

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the victims’ families, told the bench that around 200 prosecution witnesses had to be examined and was concerned about the “slow pace of the trial”.

“The trial is not slow. We have received three letters from the trial judge,” the bench observed, adding that it had gone through the contents of the letters received from the First Additional District and Sessions Judge, Lakhimpur Kheri.

The main court said, in accordance with the letters, that the examination of three witnesses is over while the cross-examination of one of them is ongoing.

“We don’t use the word monitoring but we have indirect supervision on the trial and we will do that,” he said, adding, “Let us continue with the same status for some time.” On January 25, the Supreme Court granted Ashish Mishra an eight-week interim bail and ordered him to leave Uttar Pradesh within a week of his release from jail.