NEW DELHI, Aug 20:
Final arguments in the 37-year- old murder case of the then Railway Minister L N Mishra will commence on a daily basis from August 27 in a Delhi court.
The date for start of the final arguments was fixed after the Supreme Court had on August 17 said that the trial in the case could not be quashed merely on the basis of delay.
“Put up (the case) for final arguments on August 27, 2012 on a day-to-day basis,” Additional District Judge Vinod Goel said in his order.
The judge took the decision on final arguments after accused Santoshanand Avadhuta’s counsel, amicus curiae Ashwani Kumar Bali, who was recently appointed by the court, submitted that he needed time for inspection of the file and to go through the documents.
The counsel “can take down notes during arguments by the special public prosecutor and, in the meanwhile, (he) may inspect the file and go through the documents,” the court said.
Mishra was killed in a bomb blast at a function at Samastipur Railway station in Bihar on January 3, 1975, and Ranjan Dwivedi, who was a 24-year-old at that time, was named as an accused along with four Ananda Marga members, one of whom has died.
Apart from Dwivedi, the other three accused in the case were Santoshanand Avadhuta, Sudevananda Avadhuta and Gopalji.
The accused had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the trial against them in the murder case. The apex court had dismissed their plea on the ground that the proceedings could not be terminated merely because they had not been concluded in the past 37 years.
The charge sheet in the case was filed on November 1, 1977, in a CBI court in Patna. In 1979, the case was shifted to Delhi after the then Attorney General had made a plea in the apex court.
All those charge sheeted in the Mishra murder case were also named as accused in a case of attempting to murder the then Chief Justice of India A N Ray in Delhi.
Santoshanand Avadhuta and Sudevananda Avadhuta 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 Santoshanand and Sudevananda were awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI), Dwivedi was sentenced to four years RI by the trial court in Justice Ray case.
The convicts have challenged their conviction on the ground that Vikram had retracted his confession. (PTI)
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