New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS): A court here Monday held four men guilty in the 1975 murder of then railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra.

District Judge Vinod Goel held four followers of Hindu sect Anand Marg guilty of killing Mishra 39 years back.

Gopalji, Ranjan Dwivedi, Santoshanand Avadhuta and Sudevananda Avadhuta were facing trial.

The court ordered to take them in custody and fixed Dec 15 for arguments on the quantum of sentence.

Mishra had gone to Samastipur Jan 2, 1975, to declare open the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad-gauge railway line.

A bomb explosion on the dais seriously injured him.

He was rushed to the railway hospital at Danapur where he died the following day.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Anand Margis had carried out the attack on Mishra to put pressure on the government for releasing one of the group's leaders.

The Supreme Court transferred the case to Delhi in 1979. The charges against accused were framed in 1981.

On the direction of the apex court, the lower court here began hearing the final arguments in 39-year-old case on a daily basis since September 2012.

The apex court in August 2012 dismissed the accused's plea to terminate the proceedings, ruling that this could not be done merely because the proceedings had not been concluded in the past 37 years.

The apex court directed the trial court not to entertain any plea for unwarranted adjournment.

Over 160 prosecution witnesses, five court witness and around 40 defence witnesses were examined in this case.

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