L.N. Mishra murder case: Delhi Court holds all four accused guilty

A Delhi Court on Monday held all the four accused guilty in the murder case of former railway minister L.N. Mishra at a function in Bihar nearly 40 years ago.

However, the quantum of punishment will be pronounced on December 15.

"Four persons, who were standing trial up to this stage, have been convicted of different charges. On December 15, the judge will have to hear as per law that how much sentence is to be given," said Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lawyer N.K. Sharma.

Sharma stated that there was a possibility that the accused might be given life imprisonment.

"Because in this case there was no eye-witness and the entire case against all the four convicted persons was based on circumstantial evidence, so as the law stands the death penalty is not granted in such case. Therefore, the persons who have been convicted for murder under Section 302 of IPC will naturally be sentenced to life by this court and for other offences for which they have been convicted that the judge decides," Sharma said.

Citing the reasons behind the delay in the verdict, he said, "The prosecution and the CBI had to examine a lot of evidences, we have examined over 164 witnesses, the defence has examined 64 witnesses and most of the witnesses were from Bihar, belonging to different places of the state. So, it becomes very difficult to call them. Then there were frequent stays which may continue for four to six years, then change of judges, lawyers, etc. led to the delay," he added.

Sharma further stated that they also had two approvers in this case who disclosed all the information to the court.

"There were two hand grenades with the approvers. Just after the bomb blast, one hand grenade had busted injuring lot of persons and killing a few including L.N. Mishra. The other one was taken by one of the accused, who is the current approver and the convict, and he had dropped it on the railway track. After it was dropped, it was picked up by a 16-year-old boy. He took that grenade to his house where again it blasted and for that another case was registered," Sharma said.

"In this case we had two witnesses who were participants in the conspiracy. They also joined the conspiracy, and played their own role. They have been examined as approvers in this case who is the one who participates in the crime but later on agrees to disclose the entire facts to the court himself and then he is not tried for that offence, provided he discloses true facts to the court. The two approvers had disclosed all facts and arms including grenades and pistols were also recovered," Sharma added.

A bomb attack at Samastipur in Bihar earlier on January 2, 1975, had severely injured which led to the death of L.N. Mishra, who had gone there to open a new railway line.