New Delhi, April 7 (PTI): Two Ananda Margis, serving life-term with two others for killing former railway minister L.N. Mishra 40 years ago, were today granted bail by Delhi High Court.

The bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal granted relief to convicts Sudevanand Avdhoot and Santoshanand Avdhoot, who have challenged their conviction. The bench directed them to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 each with two sureties of the like amount. The bench restrained the duo from leaving the country without prior permission of the court.

Yesterday, the same bench had granted bail to another convict, 66-year-old Ranjan Dwivedi. The fourth convict, Gopalji, also an Ananda Margi, is the only one who is still lodged in jail in the case.

Sudevanand and Santoshanand were today released on bail on the grounds of parity with Dwivedi, who was an advocate. While granting bail to Dwivedi yesterday, the court had taken note of submissions of senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the convict, that his client was not named by the witnesses, especially the two approvers, as those who were part of the meeting where the conspiracy was hatched.

"Dwivedi was not mentioned by the witnesses that he was part of those buying the ammunition...," the court had noted, adding that the trial in the case took over 39 years and documents were so voluminous that it cannot hear the appeal at the earliest but it was making an endeavour to do so.

The court also restrained Dwivedi from moving out of Delhi. The trial court, on December 18 last year, had awarded life-term to three Ananda Margis - Santoshanand (75), Sudevanand (79) and Gopalji (73) - and Dwivedi for killing Mishra and two others in a blast at Samastipur railway station on January 2, 1975, a few months before the proclamation of Emergency.

Sudevanand and Santoshanand had moved applications before the high court seeking bail and suspension of the jail term awarded to them in the case.

They contended that there was no evidence against them and the trial court had convicted and sentenced them to jail only by relying on the testimonies of witnesses, which is wrong in the eye of law.

All the four accused were held guilty of offences under sections 302 (murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon or means), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. The trial court had also imposed fines of varied amounts of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 on them and directed the Bihar government to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to Mishra's legal heirs and two other victims who had died in the incident.