Verdict in L.N. Mishra murder case Monday

New Delhi: A court here will Monday deliver its verdict in the 39-year-old case relating to then railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra's assassination.

District Judge Vinod Goel last month fixed Dec 8 to pronounce the verdict in the case in which four followers of Hindu sect Anand Marg - Gopalji, Ranjan Dwivedi, Santoshanand Avadhuta and Sudevananda Avadhuta - are facing trial.

As railway minister, Mishra had gone to Samastipur Jan 2, 1975, to declare open the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad-gauge railway line, when he was injured in a bomb explosion. He was rushed to the railway hospital at Danapur where he died the following day.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Anand Margis had carried out the attack on Mishra to put pressure on the government for releasing one of the group's leaders.

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

On the direction of the apex court, the lower court here began hearing the final arguments in the case on a daily basis from September 2012.

The apex court in August 2012 dismissed the plea of the accused to terminate the proceedings, ruling that this could not be done merely because the proceedings had not been concluded in the past 37 years. The apex court directed the trial court not to entertain any plea for unwarranted adjournment.

Over 160 prosecution witnesses, five court witness and around 40 defence witnesses were examined in this case.