New Delhi: Four followers of Hindu sect Anand Marg were yesterday 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 December 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
Rs40,000 on Sudevananda Avadhuta,
Rs30,000 on Santoshanand Avadhuta and Rs20,000 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 federal 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 of following our father of nation, who was inspired by the eternal saying ‘Ahinsa Paramo Dharmo’ and ‘Satyamev Jayate’, the convicts have 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.
IANS
