Supreme Court Exempts the Convict who attempted to Murder Former CJI A.N Ray From Surrendering

The Supreme Court yesterday exempted the person who was along with the co-convict from surrendering himself for undergoing the sentence. He was convicted under the attempt to assassinate former CJI A N Ray in 1975 and was sentenced for 10 years.

According to the convict appellant he has been in the jail for 14 years and 10 months. Therefore the bench comprising Justices Mukhopadhya and N V Ramana exempted him from surrendering till the disposal of his appeal. The court has granted leave to Santoshanand Avadhoot for challenging Delhi High court verdict after 38 years of filing of appeal in which the conviction has been upheld and has awarded 10 years of jail.

Sudevanand Avadhoot, another accused has also been convicted and has been awarded with 10 years of jail.

The convict was awarded 10 years of jail under Section 307 of the IPC (Attempt to murder).

Last year on 21 August the High court directed the convict to surrender before the trial court to serve the remaining sentence of three years as the sentence of 10 and 4 years were not concurrent.

Ranjan Dwivedi, a lawyer who is the third convict has been set free. He was charged under Section 120B of IPC for conspiring two bombs in the car of CJI A N Ray on 21 March 1976 evening. The High court had reduced term in the jail for 7 years and earlier trail court awarded him with 4 years of jail.

In 1976 the appeals was filed in the High Court against the trial court judgment and the hearing commenced in 2006, after a lapse of three decades.

The CBI said that on 20, March 1975 around 4:15 pm, 2 Anand margis had thrown hand grenades inside CJI A N Ray car at a traffic intersection of Tilak Marg and Bhagwan Das Marg near the apex court premises but they did not explode.

Recently the Delhi High Court has found Dwivedi and Gopalji guilty in the murder case of former Railway Minister L N Mishra and has sentenced life imprisonment.