SC refuses fresh probe into Gandhi assassination

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking fresh investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

On October 6 last year, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking another investigation into Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. The petition was filed by Mumbai-based Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a trustee of right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat. Dr Phadnis, at the time of demanding a probe, had billed the investigation into Gandhi’s murder as one of the biggest cover-ups in history, claiming a second assassin had fired the “fourth bullet”.

The bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao dismissed the plea by Phadnis, who had sought re-investigation of the assassination on the basis of fresh material which he said was not available earlier.

Senior counsel Amarinder Sharan, who was appointed amicus curiae by the court and who had examined the material brought by Phadnis, too did not favour reinvestigation into the killing of Mahatma Gandhi.

There is no evidence to prove that Mahatma Gandhi was killed by any person other than Nathuram Vinayak Godse, Sharan had earlier told the apex court. Assisted by advocates Sanchit Guru and Samarth Khanna, Sharan had examined 4,000 pages of trial court documents and the Jeevan Lal Kapur Inquiry Commission report of 1969 before telling the court that he found no evidence about a second person firing a fourth bullet. He had told the apex court that during scrutiny of all the documents, he found “no ground to re-open the assassination case”.

With IANS inputs.

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