Rare belongings of Mahatma go missing, trust director booked

Acting on a court order, the police have booked a director of a trust from whose New Delhi office rare belongings of Mahatma Gandhi have gone missing. The missing property included mainly the Mahatma’s blood-stained clothes, his ashes, books, antique guns and some letters.

Acting on a court order, the police have booked a director of a trust from whose New Delhi office rare belongings of Mahatma Gandhi have gone missing.

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Manish Jadhav, accountant of the Society of Servants of God, alleged the accused, with the help of a former employee, misappropriated the trust’s property worth `5 crore, the police said.

“Jadhav had approached the metropolitan magistrate’s court in June last year and filed an open case. On the direction of the court, a case has been registered against a director at the Delhi office of the Society of Servants of God on January 13. A former employee at the trust has also been made accused in the case,” said Ashok Jagdale, senior police inspector, adding, the complainant alleged that the missing property included mainly the Mahatma’s blood-stained clothes, his ashes, books, antique guns and some letters.

The trust is based in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and has an office in Mumbai.

“The complainant alleged all the Mahatma’s rare belongings were kept on the trust’s Delhi premises and the civic corporation of Delhi took over the place in 2009. When the former employee was asked about the valuables, she maintained that the articles were moved to a safe place but has not returned them,” Jagdale said.

Dinshah Mehta, a close associate of the Mahatma, had established the trust in 1955.