A public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court has sought setting up of a commission of inquiry to probe afresh the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948, and the conspiracy behind it. The PIL, filed by Pankaj Phadnis, author, researcher, and trustee of Abhinav Bharat, Mumbai, has claimed that the then J L Kapur Commission of Inquiry had not been able to unearth the conspiracy behind the killing of Gandhi.
According to the prosecution, on January 30, 1948, the Father of the Nation was shot at by the assassin with a revolver which had seven compartments of bullets. Gandhi had received three bullets while the remaining four were recovered by the police from the weapon.
However, the PIL alleged that Gandhi had received four bullets. The petitioner produced media clippings to show that Gandhi had sustained four bullet injuries.
The PIL, slated to come up for hearing on June 6 before a Bench headed by Chief Justice D H Waghela, said the new commission of inquiry should conduct a probe to find out who had fired the fourth shot and establish whether there was any other assassin besides Nathuram Godse.
The commission should also find out whether the motive was to cause enmity between the people of India and Pakistan by sabotaging the Gandhi-Jinnah reconciliation project of reviving people-to-people contact.
The PIL claimed that Gandhi was slated to visit Pakistan to revive people-to-people contact. However, he was shot dead prior to his departure. The petition also said the commission should find out whether any person —other than those accused in the Gandhi murder trial — had prior information of the conspiracy or had participated in such a conspiracy.
It alleged that the Kapur Commission had made certain adverse observations or findings against Veer Savarkar implying or imputing that he was involved in the murder of Gandhi. Savarkar was acquitted during the trial and hence these adverse findings should be removed. Inspired by Veer Savarkar, Abinav Bharat, Mumbai, was set up in 2001 to work for socially and economically weaker sections with focus on bridging the digital divide. — PTI
