The late Railway Minister L.N. Mishra’s family believes the real culprits were politically shielded in 1975. 48 years later, can they convince the courts?
India is no stranger to political assassinations and deaths under mysterious circumstances. Young India lost the father of the nation, M.K. Gandhi, to assassination merely one year into Independence. Then India witnessed the assassinations of two sitting Prime Ministers—Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Countless Indian political leaders have died under mysterious circumstances, including Lal Bahadur Shastri, Subhas Chandra Bose, Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, and Y.S.R. Reddy. In fact, India has also witnessed the tragic and untimely deaths of its key scientists such as Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Jehangir Bhabha.
While these high profile cases have gathered dust as “unnatural deaths”, they’ve at least received the attention they deserve. There are several Indian political leaders whose killings, followed by an alleged botched-up investigation, cover-up, and slow judicial process, has possibly resulted in the denial of justice. One such case is India’s former Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishra.
In a political career spanning 22 years, L.N. Mishra served as a Parliamentary Secretary, Member of Parliament, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, and Finance, Minister of State for Defence Production, and Minister of Foreign Trade.
On 5 February 1973, Mishra became the Minister for Railways in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s cabinet. Two years later, on 2 January 1975, L.N. Mishra was assassinated at Samastipur railway station, moments after he finished his speech at a broad gauge railway line inaugural event. A grenade was thrown at the dais, causing grave injuries to Mishra, who later succumbed at the hospital. Apart from Mishra, then MLC Surya Narayan Jha and Ram Kishore Prasad Singh, a railway clerk, were also killed in the blasts, while his younger brother, Dr Jagannath Mishra, who later became the three-time Chief Minister of undivided Bihar, was injured during this attack. The case was investigated initially by the local police and Bihar CID, before the CBI took over on 10 January 1975. After adjudicating the matter for over 40 years, the Trial Court held four persons guilty and awarded each life imprisonment in December 2014. The four persons held guilty include three followers of the Anand Margis—Santoshanand, Sudevanand, Gopalji—and advocate Ranjan Dwivedi.
The Trial Court held that L.N. Mishra was assassinated to create pressure on Indira Gandhi to release the leader of the Anand Margis, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, from jail. The court had held that the conspiracy to eliminate the targets was hatched in a meeting in 1973 at a village in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district, attended by six Ananda Margis. All convicted have been out on bail pending an appeal before the High Court against their conviction.
It took over 40 years for the justice system to deliver a verdict. However, far from a sense of closure, L.N. Mishra’s family has been seeking a re-investigation into his murder. Vaibhav Mishra, grandson of L.N. Mishra and an advocate himself, believes the CBI changed its course of investigation in the murder of his grandfather, and the real accused went scot-free.
A month into the probe, “Arun Kumar Mishra” and “Arun Kumar Thakur” were arrested with the other accused. On 21 February 1975, both the Aruns made confessional statements before the Samastipur Magistrate. As per copies of the confession accessed by the victim’s family, the accused said, “I along with Shiv Sharma stood on the northeast corner adjacent to the dais…At the same time, Shiv Sharma pulled the pin and put grenade on the stage. I took a step back and just then there was an explosion.”
In March 1975, India’s then Home Minister, Brahmananda Reddy announced Arun Kumar Thakur, Shivlal Sharma, and Uma Kant Jha as the accused arrested. Four months later, members of the Ananda Margis (a self-proclaimed socio-spiritual organisation) were arrested for the assassination of L.N. Mishra, and in November 1975, both the Aruns were discharged by the CBI.
It is not unusual for a probe agency to shift its lens across multiple suspects. However, crucial documents accessed by the family of the victim reveal information indicating that the real culprits were possibly let off.
The first document accessed by the victim’s family is a Bihar CID report authored by S.B. Sahai. Dated 24 October 1978, the report in its conclusions confirms the initial accused to be Arun Kumar Mishra and Arun Kumar Thakur. The report says, “Name of two Arun Mishras figured as suspects in the murder in the very first week of investigation. Subsequently natural eye witness, Shankar, claimed identification of Arun Kumar Thakur and Arun Kumar Mishra on the spot of the bomb blast.”
The same Bihar CID report of 1978 brings forward another name as the possible mastermind of the assassination, “giving some details of the conspiracy and revealing the name of Ram Bilash Jha as the planner of the crime.” As per the report, there was a “sea change” in the attitude of the CBI after the disclosure of Ram Bilash Jha as one of the main conspirators. The report states, “This line of investigation was abruptly closed and valuable evidence obtained during the first three months of the investigation was completely suppressed.”
The Bihar CID has made explosive claims: “C.B.I. implicating some Anand Margis was part of a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real culprits who were close to the seat of power.” The man in question, Ram Bilash Jha, was a Bihar MLC and a close associate of Congress leader Yashpal Kapoor. Jha allegedly also had direct contact with then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Bihar CID report further alleges quid-pro-quo: “it is not without significance that Sri D. Sen, who was due to retire in November 1975, was granted an extension of service as Director of the C.B.I. He was also decorated with Padma Bhushan on the following Republic Day.”
The second document accessed by the family contains excerpts of a “secret report”. In 1979, senior advocate V.M. Tarkunde submitted his report into the assassination of L.N. Mishra to then Bihar Chief Minister Kapoori Thakur. Tarkunde reportedly said the CBI inquiry was “deliberately abandoned, indeed sabotaged, probably at the instance of Mrs. Indira Gandhi”. Tarkunde alluded to the same reasons as the Bihar CID for abandoning of the initial line of investigation by the CBI—the revelation of Ram Bilash Jha as a conspirator.
This abrupt change in the probe trajectory between January and November 1975 has led the family of L.N. Mishra to knock at the doors of justice again. The case against the two Aruns initially arrested was “dismissed” after the name of Ram Bilash Jha allegedly came forward. The family has been demanding a simple answer: why and on what basis was the initial line of investigation dropped? While the victim’s family is demanding the matter to be probed from scratch, the CBI has cited legality to deny the demand. The “Ananda Margi” convicts filed an appeal before the high court in 2015, challenging the Trial Court’s verdict convicting and sentencing them. That appeal is still pending in the High Court, making it “legally impermissible to conduct a re-investigation in the matter”. The Supreme Court has permitted the grandson of L.N. Mishra to assist the Delhi High Court in the final hearing of appeals of convicts in the murder case.
It is not a victory, but the Supreme Court’s recent order in favour of the family glimmers as a faint light in a dark tunnel. Perhaps the family’s entry into the case will help reveal answers to some key questions including who killed L.N. Mishra, was there a conspiracy behind his assassination, and was the investigation sidelined? However, the biggest question today is: what must be done now to take up the serious, brutal and public assassination of a sitting Union Minister of India?
Devika Chopra is Associate News Editor, NewsX.