Gandhi assassination: SC seeks counsel’s opinion on new probe

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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Friday appointed senior counsel Amarendra Sharan as amicus curiae to examine the material produced by a petitioner to ascertain whether there was need for further inquiry into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

While asking Sharan to assist the court and examine the material produced by Mumbai-based IT professional Pankaj Kumud Chandra Phadnis, the bench of Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L.Nageswara Rao however said that prima facie they don’t find the material to be sufficient to order fresh inquiry.

At the outset of the hearing, the bench asked the petitioner why has approached the court at this stage, pointing out that the trial court order convicting accused in Mahatma Gandhi assassination case was upheld by the High Court and convicts were executed in 1949.

The court was told that since the death sentence was executed on November 15, 1949 and Supreme Court came into existence on January 26, 1950, therefore the assassination of Gandhi was never looked at by the top court on merits.

The petitioner appeared in person to argue his case. The court told the petitioner in person that he needed legal assistance to read the documents.

The petition has moved the top court challenging the Bombay High Court’s June 6, 2016 order junking his plea for the fresh inquiry into larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in the wake of fresh evidence that has surfaced now.

Pointing fingers at British Secret Service Force 136, the petitioner has said that the Indian Ambassador to USSR was informed in February 1948 that the British had organized the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.

Having said this he said that he has come across evidence of a sinister British secret service Force 136 that had authorization to murder iconic freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose.

Describing the investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi as biggest cover-up in Indian history, Phadnis said that “The blame on Marathi people in general and Veer Savarkar in particular for being the cause of the death of Mahatma has no basis in law and facts”.

He said that there was a “compelling need to to uncover the larger conspiracy behind the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by constituting a new Commission of Inquiry.”