The Delhi High Court has scheduled for May 16 a petition filed by the grandson of former railways minister L N Mishra, seeking a thorough reinvestigation into his assassination in a blast at Bihar’s Samastipur Railway Station more than 48 years ago.
A bench led by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait listed the plea by Vaibhav Mishra alongside an appeal by the convicts challenging their conviction and life sentence for the murder.
Vaibhav Mishra approached the high court subsequent to a Supreme Court ruling on October 13 last year, granting him permission to participate in the final hearing of the convicts’ appeal.
“The present application under Section 482 CrPC has been filed pursuant to order dated 13.10.2023, passed by Hon’ble Supreme Court in SLP (Crl.) No.13467/2023 titled Vaibhav Mishra vs. CBI & Ors.
“List along with the main appeal being CRL.A. 91/2015 on 16th May, 2024,” the bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Jain, said in a recent order.
The veteran Congress leader and senior cabinet minister had suffered fatal injuries in grenade blasts at Samastipur while inaugurating a broad gauge line on January 2, 1975. He was later transferred for treatment from Samastipur to Danapur where he succumbed to injuries on January 3, 1975.
Vaibhav Mishra had moved the apex court challenging a high court ruling dismissing his plea for a direction to the CBI to conduct a “fair investigation” and “re-investigation” into the matter.
Claiming that the investigation was mishandled, Mishra sought a fresh probe on various grounds, including the discharge of the real culprits, leading to a “miscarriage of justice”.
Three ‘Ananda Margis’—Santoshanand, Sudevanand, and Gopalji—along with advocate Ranjan Dwivedi, were sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2014 by a trial court in Delhi for the murder of the former railway minister and two others.
The trial court concluded that the act of terrorism was aimed at pressuring the then Indira Gandhi government to release the group’s imprisoned leader.
The convicts lodged an appeal before the high court in 2015 challenging the trial court’s decision, and they were granted bail. The appeal is presently pending in the high court.
Moreover, the trial court had directed the Bihar government to compensate Rs 5 lakh each to the legal heirs of Mishra and two other victims who perished in the blast on January 2, 1975, just months before the declaration of Emergency.
The court found that the conspiracy to eliminate the targets was devised in a meeting in 1973 at a village in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district, attended by six ‘Ananda Margis’.
Accused Ram Nagina Prasad and Ram Rup were acquitted by the court in January 1981, while Arteshanand Avadhoot passed away in 2004 during the case’s pendency.
Two others, Visheshwaranand and Vikram, were pardoned after cooperating with the investigation as approvers.
The Supreme Court directed the case to be transferred from Bihar to Delhi.
(With PTI inputs)
