A higher court in Uttar Pradesh state on Thursday granted bail to the son of a federal Minister, nearly four months after he was held for allegedly running over a group of protesting farmers. "Ashish Mishra, my client, has been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court," his lawyer told the media. Ashish, the son of India's junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra, was arrested by the state police in October 2021 in connection with the incident in which eight people were killed in the state's Lakhimpur Kheri district. The arrest was made after the country's Supreme Court slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for apparently going slow in the case amid a nationwide outrage over the incident. Also read: India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh goes to polls "Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish has been arrested after questioning. Ashish was evasive during his questioning," senior police officer Upendra Aggarwal then told the media. In fact, on October 3 last year, the junior Minister's motorcade ploughed into the farmers protesting farm reforms that they feared could hurt their livelihoods.  While four of them were killed after being run over by a car allegedly driven by Ashish, four others died in the ensuing clashes. The federal Minister, however, was quick to deny that his son was present on the spot. "There were miscreants who had attacked our workers. The farmers died when a car in my convoy overturned." The violence in Lakhimpur Kheri was just an aggressive manifestation of the year-long protest by millions of farmers who had been camping on the outskirts of Delhi in protest against three contentious farm laws. Also read: 4 members of Indian fake currency gang arrested by DMP The Indian government was finally forced to revoke the three farm laws later that year.

Indian Railway, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said Bangladesh has come a long way and reached a unique height since its independence five decades ago. Speaking as the chief guest at a reception hosted by the Bangladesh High Commission on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Independence on Wednesday evening, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is leading the wonderful success of Bangladesh. "When Sheikh Hasina last visited India, I talked to her. Then I realised that Sheikh Hasina thinks deeply about the welfare of the country and the people," Goyal said. Also read: Dhaka, Delhi to accelerate momentum; eye next 50 years of diversified ties The Railway Minister said that this time on the centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth, the government of India has rightly bestowed on him Gandhi award.

India has picked up “connectivity” with Bangladesh as a big goal for the years to come that might change the entire logistic and whole geo-economics of the region giving the Bay of Bengal a very different look. 

Bangladesh and India on Thursday highlighted their shared objective with an approach “no crime, no death” to end killings along the border, noting that every death is regrettable.