NO murder trial in India has perhaps gone on for so long. On January 2, 1975, at a function to inaugurate a broadguage line between Samastipur and Muzaffarpur in Bihar, a grenade was lobbed into the dias, severely injuring then union railway minister, Lalit Narayan Mishra. He died later. A close confidant of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mishra’s influence was growing rapidly in Bihar when it came to an abrupt end. Believed to be the key fund collector for the party, Mishra had taken on stalwarts of the Congress to make his way into the Congress Working Party (CWC) days before the grenade attack. MISHRA’S death was followed by a chain of unexplained events. Why he was taken from Samastipur to a small railway hospital in Danapur almost 150 km metres away when better medical facilities were available just 30 minutes away at Dharbangha still remains a question. And then why wasn’t the train carrying him made to stop at Patna where he could have got better treatment? It was also alleged that the train was held up at several places, delaying treatment that could have saved Mishra. What was even more curious was that no post mortem was ever carried out. CHARGES were filed against 10 people, most of whom were members of the controversial sect, the Anand Marg. Of the 10, only seven were arrested. One of the accused has since died. The prosecution claimed that the attack was part of an deliberate campaign of the Anand Marg to seek the release of its arrested founder leader Anand Murthy P R Sarkar.
