SC petition alleges conspiracy in Mahatma Gandhi assassination, claims there was a second murderer

New Delhi: Was the investigation into the murder of Mahatma Gandhi the biggest cover-up in the history of India and was there any basis to blame Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for his death?

These questions have been raised in a petition before the Supreme Court with a plea that there is a compelling need to uncover the larger conspiracy behind the murder of Mahatma by constituting a new Commission of Inquiry.

The petition by Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, Mumbai, has claimed that the Justice JL Kapur Commission of Inquiry set up in 1966 had not been able to unearth the entire conspiracy that culminated in the killing of the Father of the Nation.

He has also questioned the three bullet theory relied upon by various courts of law to hold the conviction of accused, including Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte, who were hanged to death on 15 November 1949, while Savarkar was given the benefit of doubt due to lack of evidence.

Inspired by Savarkar, Abhinav Bharat, Mumbai, was set up in 2001 and it claims to work for the socially and economically weaker section with a focus on bridging the digital divide.

Phadnis claimed that his research and media reports then suggested that four bullets were pumped into Gandhi and the difference between three and four shots was material as the pistol by which Godse shot Mahatma on 30 January 1948 had a seven bullet chamber and the remaining four unspent bullets were recovered by police.

“There was no way the fourth shot could have come from this (Godse’s) pistol. It had to be from the gun of a second assassin, no trace of whom survives in any record,” he stated in the petition.

Besides approaching the apex court, Phadnis has also shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expunging of “adverse unfounded” remarks made by the Kapur Commission against Savarkar, whose portrait was unveiled in 2003 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

Coincidentally, Savarkar was born on this day in 1883 and today is his 114th birth anniversary.

In his 10 May letter to the Prime Minister, the Mumbai resident said during his birth anniversary, “vested interests will once again unleash the bogey of apology by Savarkar to the British.”

Elaborating on his efforts, Phadnis said for the last two decades, he has been “fighting a war to unearth the truth behind horrors of partition, clear the name of Veer Savarkar and bring before the nation, true murderers of the Mahatma.

“This quest has taken me to the doors of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Bombay High Court and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Finally, I have filed a Special Leave Petition (appeal against the High Court order) in the Supreme Court,” Phadnis stated in the letter to Modi.

He has challenged the decision of the High Court which on 6 June, 2016 had dismissed his PIL on two grounds, firstly, that the findings of fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up to the apex court and secondly, the Kapur Commission has submitted its report and made the observations in 1969 while the present petition has been filed after 46 years.

The petitioner said the case is one concerning the knowing of the truth behind the real hands or culprits who performed that dastardly act of killing the Mahatma and also their hidden agenda of derailing the Great Gandhi-Jinnah People-to-People Contact that the Mahatma had planned to embark upon.

This plan was derailed because of the murder of the Mahatma and the consequences of which are being felt even now, he contended.