Ananda Margas chose path of violence instead of Ahinsa: Court

The Ananda Marga was founded with an objective to establish a 'government' of moralists but instead of following Mahatma Gandhi's principle of 'ahinsa', some of the cult members chose the path of violence by assassinating L N Mishra, a Delhi court said today.
"The object of the Anand Marg was to establish Sadvipra Raj, a government of moralists. In order to achieve this, a cadre of full time workers known as Avadhoots was created by Anand Murti...
"Instead of following our father of nation, who was inspired by the eternal saying Ahinsa Paramo Dharma and Satyamev Jayate, the convicts have chosen the different attribute namely violence which is not the Dharma," district judge Vinod Goel said.

Observing that this was not a "rarest of the rare" case where the capital punishment is warranted, the court said that there was every possibility of their reformation.
"I find that this is not a cold blooded murder and convicts do not bear trace of any personal animosity with the victims. They do not appear to be the menace to the society. Crime was committed by them during prime of their youth about 40 years ago. Now they are elderly figures and this is a period of self introspection," the court said.
The judge also quoted writer Scilla Elworthy who said that Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues slowly honed the skills that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments into a democracy.

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar alias Anand Murti, who was an employee in Eastern Railway, had founded 'Anand Marg Parcharak Sangh' in January 9, 1955, with an object to establish "Sadvipra Raj", a government of moralists. In order to achieve this, a cadre of full time workers known as Avadhoots was created by him.
The court held three Ananda Margas-- Santoshanand, Sudevanand and Gopalji-- and advocate Ranjan Dwivedi guilty of murdering Mishra and two others, in a blast at Bihar's Samastipur Railway station on January 2, 1975.