NEW DELHI – The Indian Supreme Court, which is seized of a petition seekingre-investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, was on Mondaytold that there were some crucial documents procured from the USA’s Libraryof Congress which showed evidence of a “larger conspiracy” behind thekilling of the Father of the Nation, PTI has revealed.
A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said suchmaterial has to be brought before it along with an application.
Mumbai-based Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a trustee of charitable trust AbhinavBharat who has filed a petition in this regard, told the bench that thedocuments, which he had received from the USA, contained material which are“banned” by the government here. He said he has also got a letter from aUS-based attorney who has said that forensic evidence could be obtained inthe case.
“We will see this. It seems attractive but we will see whether it can bedone,” the bench told him after he referred to the letter by an attorneyregarding admissibility of evidence in courts in New York.
The bench said that now with technology, it was possible to get theforensic evidence but it would see whether the case was required to bere-investigated.
At the outset, the bench told Phadnis and senior advocate Amarender Sharan,who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, that it wouldhear arguments in the matter on a ‘non-miscellaneous day’.
Phadnis, who appeared in person in the case, told the bench that he hadreturned from New York and got documents related to the case from theLibrary of Congress.
“This (documents) shows evidence of larger conspiracy in Mahatma Gandhi’sassassination. Government of India has banned this. I have got thesedocuments from the USA. I have also filed a petition in the Bombay HighCourt to lift the ban,” he told the bench while seeking to place on recordthe documents which were in a sealed cover.
However, the apex court asked him to file the material along with anapplication to produce the documents on record. “If you want to producesomething in the court, you tell us what it is, why it was not produced incourt earlier and what is its bearing in your case,” the bench said.
The petitioner said if he opened the seal of the documents, it might be anoffence since the government has banned these documents in India. The benchasked him to file the documents with an application and posted the matterfor hearing on March 6. The top court had earlier asked him to satisfy iton the aspects of delay and his locus to raise the issue, while making itclear that it would only go by law and not the stature of the personinvolved in the case.
Phadnis has sought re-opening of investigation on several grounds claimingit was one of the biggest cover-ups in the history. The amicus had filed areport in the court saying there was no need to re-investigate Mahatma’sassassination case as the conspiracy behind the murder and identity ofassailant Nathuram Vinayak Godse who had fired the bullets have alreadybeen duly established.
However, the petitioner had later claimed in his affidavit that the allegedconspirators were hanged even before the murder trial had attained legalfinality from the top court.
Gandhi was shot dead at point blank range in New Delhi on January 30, 1948by Godse, a right-wing advocate of Hindu nationalism. The assassinationcase had led to the conviction and execution of Nathuram Vinayak Godse andNarayan Apte on November 15, 1949.
The petitioner has questioned the ‘three bullet theory’ relied upon byvarious courts to hold conviction of Godse and Apte, who were hanged, andVinayak Damodar Savarkar who was given benefit of doubt due to lack ofevidence.
Phadnis has challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court which on June6, 2016 had dismissed his plea on two grounds — firstly, that the findingsof fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up tothe apex court, and secondly, the Kapur Commission has submitted its reportand made observations in 1969, while the present petition has been filed 46years later.