No ‘mysterious person’ behind Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, amicus curiae tells SC
Senior advocate Amrendra Sharan said there was no need to re-investigate or constitute a fresh fact-finding commission in the assassination case.
Senior advocate Amrendra Sharan told the Supreme Court on Monday that there was no evidence to prove Mahatma Gandhi was killed by anybody other than Hindu radical Nathuram Godse.
Sharan was asked by the court to examine all documents pertaining to the incident after Pankaj Phadnis, a self-professed Veer Savarkar follower, filed a petition insisting that a “mysterious person” was responsible for firing the fourth bullet that killed the freedom fighter.
Sharan, an amicus curiae in the case, said there was no need to re-investigate or constitute a fresh fact-finding commission in the assassination case. He was assisted by advocates Sanchit Guru and Samarth Khanna in examining nearly 4,000 pages of trial court records, besides the Jeevan Lal Kapur Inquiry Commission report, in this regard.
The earlier probe conducted into the case had correctly identified the assassin, his ideology and bullets used for the crime, Sharan said, ruling out the existence of a second assailant or the firing of four bullets on Gandhi. The report also junked the alleged involvement of a foreign intelligence agency in the assassination, and stated that the petitioner’s claim was not substantiated by any evidence.
The plea filed by Phadnis in the apex court had termed the investigation into Gandhi’s assassination as the “biggest cover-up” in the history of India. “The blame on the Marathi people in general and Veer Savarkar in particular for being the cause of the Mahatma’s death has no basis in law and facts. On the other hand, there is a compelling need to uncover the larger conspiracy behind the murder by constituting a new Commission of Inquiry to look into the issue,” it said.
Gandhi was shot dead by Godse in New Delhi on January 30, 1948.