SC rejects plea for fresh probe into Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday rejected a petition seeking fresh investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mumbai-based engineer Pankaj Kumudchandra Phadnis had contested in his petition that the investigation and trial in the Independent India’s biggest assassination was a cover-up.

Gandhi was gunned down by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical, on January 30, 1948 in New Delhi when he was on his way to addressing an evening prayer meeting.

Phadnis, who is a trustee of the Mumbai wing of Abhinav Bharat, a right-wing Hindu organisation, said in his petition there was suspicion that a second assassin was involved in the killing. He also claimed that four, not three, shots killed Gandhi and lower courts had ignored that “monumental evidence” in determining the real people behind the murder.

Senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, asked by the court to assist in the case, told the Supreme Court there was no proof that Gandhi was killed by a person other than Godse and there was no need for a fresh investigation.

Phadnis had also sought the expunction of “adverse, unfounded” remarks made by the Kapur Commission in 1969 report against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Phadnis alleged that the Maratha community was “maligned” due to these adverse remarks, which should hence be removed.

NEW DELHI: