NEW DELHI: The verdict in the 39-year-old case murder case of former railway minister LN Mishra was deferred on Monday by a trial court which said the judgment was not ready. The case, which is said to be one of the oldest pending case in the history of criminal justice in India, relates to the bomb blast at a function attended by Mishra at Samastipur Railway Station on January 2, 1975. He succumbed to injuries the next day. The case has meandered through the courts for nearly four decades, despite some early breakthroughs made by the police. More than 22 judges have heard the case and statement of more than 200 witnesses including 161 prosecution witnesses and more than 40 defence witnesses, were examined in were recorded in this case.

During the prolonged trial of this case, one of the accused and some of the witnesses passed away. The investigation began to stall because the disclosures made by some accused allegedly indicated the involvement of some political bigwigs. Sources say it was because of these political overtones that judiciary could not give swift justice in the case. The case was transferred to the premier investigating agency CBI soon after the incident from but the final arguments in the case were concluded only on September 12, this year.

District Judge Vinod Goel, who had reserved the verdict for Monday, deferred the verdict for December 8 saying the judgment was not ready. Senior advocate ML Lahoty who was associated with the case for more than 35 years termed this case as a classic example of mockery of justice. Lahoty said that this case was stuck for unusual periods during every stage of trial. “Usually, the procedure of recording of statements of accused under section 313 of the CrPC takes 3-4 days but in this case, it took almost 6 years. Investigation and reinvestigation was ordered with changing governments. Some commissions too probed the matter. The records kept getting voluminous and by the time one judge would understand the facts of this case, time of his transfer would have come and the next judge would again take time to understand the case,” Lahoty said

Advocate Ranjan Dwivedi, who was 24-year-old at that time, was named as an accused along with four Ananda Marga group members, one of whom has died. Apart from Dwivedi, three other accused in the case are Santoshananda Avadhuta, Sudevananda Avadhuta and Gopalji. Diwedi was released on bail in 1976 while the other accused got bail in 1986 in connection with the case.

The accused had earlier approached the Supreme Court for quashing of the trial against them in the murder case. The apex court had on August 17, 2012 dismissed their pleas on the ground that the proceedings could not be quashed merely because they had not been concluded in the last 37 years. The chargesheet in the case was filed on November 1,1977 in a CBI court in Patna. The case was shifted to Delhi in 1979 on a plea by the then Attorney General to the apex court.

Except Gopalji, all those listed in the chargesheet in Mishra murder case were also named as accused in an attempt to murder case related to the bid on the life of then Chief Justice of India AN Ray in Delhi on March 20, 1975. Santoshananda and Sudevananda were made accused in the Justice Ray case on the basis of a confessional statement of Vikram, who had turned an approver for CBI.

While Santoshananda and Sudevananda were awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) each, Dwivedi was sentenced to four years RI by the trial court in the attempt to murder case. The convicts had challenged their conviction on the ground that Vikram had retracted from his confession. The Delhi High Court in August had upheld the conviction and sentence of Santoshananda and Sudevananda in the attempt to murder case but acquitted Dwivedi in the case.

During the final arguments, the CBI prosecutor had asked the court to consider the testimonies of two accused-turned- approvers in the case, saying their statements were important. The prosecutor had said testimonies of Vikram and Madan Mohan Srivastava, alias Visheshwarananda, as approvers must be taken into account because they had participated in the conspiracy to kill Mishra in 1975 and they knew the entire details of the case. Defence counsels Firoz Ahmed and Ashwini Kumar Bali, however, had argued that court could not rely on the statement of “an absconding person who had given wrong details in the court.” Vikram is still absconding and bailable as well as non- bailable warrants were issued against him but he has still not been arrested.

