Four get life term for 1975 L.N. Mishra murder

Four followers of Hindu sect Anand Marg were Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment here for criminal conspiracy and murder of the then railway minister L.N. Mishra in 1975.

District Judge Vinod Goel awarded life imprisonment to Gopalji (73), Ranjan Dwivedi (66), Santoshanand Avadhuta (75) and Sudevananda Avadhuta (79).

The maximum punishment under which the four were charged entail death penalty.

They were convicted Dec 8 on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon.

Santoshanand Avadhuta and Sudevananda Avadhuta were also convicted and punished under the Explosive Substances Act.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 40,000 on Sudevananda Avadhuta, Rs. 30,000 on Santoshanand Avadhuta and Rs. 20,000 each on Dwivedi and Gopalji.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Anand Marg followers carried out the attack on Mishra to put pressure on the central government to release one of the group's leaders.

Awarding life imprisonment, the court held that the case does not come under the "rarest of rare" category where the death penalty can be given.

"Instead on following our father of nation, who was inspired by the eternal saying 'Ahinsa Paramo Dharmo' and 'Satyamev Jayate', the convicts haven chosen the different attribute namely violence which is not the 'Dharma'," the judge opined.

"However, I find this is not a cold blooded murder and the convicts do not bear trace of any personal animosity with the victim. They do not appear to be a menace to the society," the court said.

It added: "The crime was committed during the prime of their youth about 40 years ago. Now they are elderly figures and this is a period of self-introspection. There is every possibility of their reformation. Therefore, this is not a rarest of rare case where capital punishment is invited."

The four convicts were present in the packed court when order was announced.

Defence lawyers said they will challenge Thursday's order.

The grand nephew of Mishra, Vaibhav Mishra said he has doubt that the convicts were involved in the case. "It was a big political conspiracy. I believe they (four convicts) were not part of it (conspiracy and murder). Many other people were involved who were not even named. CBI has dragged the case for so long," he told reporters outside the court.

L.N. Mishra had gone to Samastipur Jan 2, 1975 to inaugurate the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line. A bomb explosion on the dais seriously injured him.

He was rushed to the railway hospital at Danapur where he died the next day.

Two others died in the explosion while 25 more, including L.N. Mishra's brother Jagannath Mishra, were injured. Jagannath Mishra later became the chief minister of Bihar -- thrice.

The court also asked Bihar government to pay compensation through District Legal Service Authority to the persons who died in the explosion. It directed the government to pay Rs. 5 lakh each to the family members of three deceased, namely Mishra, Surya Narayan Jha and Ram Kishore Singh Kishore.

It also directed that Rs. 1.5 lakh compensation be paid to families of each of the seven grievously injured persons and Rs. 50,000 each compensation to 18 victims who suffered minor injuries.

The court also directed DLSA Patna to conduct proper enquiry for the purpose of identifying legal heirs to disburse within 60 days the compensation, as the incident occurred almost 40 years ago and victims hail from different places.

Santoshanand Avadhuta and Sudevananda Avadhuta have already spent over 12 years in jail while Gopalji had remained behind bars for 11 years. Dwivedi was in jail for three years.

The Supreme Court had transferred the case to Delhi in 1979. The charges were framed in 1981.

On the direction of the apex court, the lower court began hearing the final arguments daily since September 2012. Over 160 prosecution witnesses and around 40 defence witnesses were examined.