No material to prove murder was politically motivated: Court

Advocate Ranjan Dwivedi's claim of false implication by CBI in the L N Mishra murder case citing political reasons was dismissed by a Delhi court which said there were no material to perceive any political or personal animosity of the then minister with his political rivals.
While convicting Dwivedi, a practising Supreme Court lawyer, and three Ananda Margas in the case, district judge Vinod Goel observed that although Dwivedi had claimed that Mishra was murdered by political rivals, he had not placed any material on record which suggested that the then minister was "the object of avowed vengeance at hands of some private individuals or the group".

"There is no material to perceive the political or personal animosity of the minister (Mishra) with any of his political rivals or such foes," the judge said.
During the trial, Dwivedi had claimed innocence saying CBI had protected the "real offenders" in the case as the initial probe had revealed that the plot to kill Mishra was hatched by others.
He had also alleged that Mishra was indulged in corrupt activities and referred to the alleged strained relations between the then Railway Minister and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
"If the minister was so much tainted, his continuance in the Union Cabinet would be understandable and just because he was corrupt, nobody intended to kill him by taking law into their own hands," the court said in its order while rejecting Dwidevi's claim.

He had claimed that as he was the lawyer for Ananda Marga and was planning to approach the Supreme Court against the ban imposed on the organisation during emergency period, the CBI implicated him in this case.
The court on December 8 had convicted three Ananda Margas Santoshanand, Sudevanand and Gopalji and Dwivedi for conspiring and killing Mishra and two others in a blast at the Samastipur railway station on January 2, 1975. They were today awarded life imprisonment by the court.