Disappointed over non-production of witnesses in the trial against former Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra and others in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the trial judge to take measures to secure their presence.Noting that no witnesses has been examined in the trial for the last two months, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the Uttar Pradesh Government’s status report hasn’t assigned any reason for the non-production of witnesses.“We are disappointed to note that the so-called status report does not assign any reason whatsoever for non-production of witnesses…,” said the Bench as it wondered how official witnesses could remain absent during the trial.“We direct the presiding judge to take lawful measures to secure the presence of witnesses,” the Bench said, directing the trial judge to make an endeavour to conclude the trial in a time-bound manner and file a status report before it.Trials in two cases related to the incident are going on before a court in Uttar Pradesh.The Bench noted that in the first case, out of 131 witnesses to be examined, 44 have been examined, 15 have been discharged and 72 are still to be produced. In the second one, out of 35 witnesses, 26 have been examined and nine were left, it said.On behalf of accused Ashish Mishra, senior advocate Siddharth Dave submitted that the latest status report filed by Uttar Pradesh said 44 witnesses have been examined so far in the first FIR. “No witnesses have been examined in the last two months,” Dave added.“What have you done since March till today?” the Bench asked the Uttar Pradesh Government counsel who said that 3-4 witnesses were summoned for the recording of their deposition during the trial.The Bench, however, said at least 7-8 witnesses should be summoned instead of three or four for a day, so that even if some of them do not turn up, the trial court could proceed with the recording of statements of those appearing before it.On behalf of relatives of farmers allegedly mowed down in the incident, advocate Prashant Bhushan urged the Bench to do something to bring the trial back on track.Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri when those against farm laws were holding a demonstration against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit on October 3, 2021. In the subsequent violence, two BJP workers, a driver and a journalist were killed. It was alleged that Ashish was driving one of the cars.On January 25, 2023, the top court granted interim bail to Ashish Mishra and chose to convert it into regular bail on July 22, 2024, when it restricted his movement to Delhi or Lucknow. It had also directed the trial court to expedite the trial. On November 27, 2024, it had asked Ashish Mishra to respond to the allegations of witnesses being threatened.A Lakhimpur Kheri court had on December 6, 2022, framed charges against Ashish Mishra and 12 others for murder, criminal conspiracy and certain other offences in the case. Virendra Shukla, the 14th accused was charged under Section 201 of IPC for causing disappearance of evidence.