‘No probe needed in Gandhi killing’

New Delhi: No further probe is needed into the assassination of Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi, amicus curiae informed the Supreme Court on Monday.

In its report submitted to the court, senior counsel Amarendra Saran said the bullets which pierced Mahatma Gandhi’s body, the pistol from which it was fired, the assailant who fired the said bullets, the conspiracy which led to the assassination and the ideology which led to the said assassination have all been duly identified. A bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao had appointed Mr Saran to assist the court to decide a petition filed by Pankaj Kumarchandra Phadnis, seeking further probe into the assassination of the Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.

The report said no substantive material has come to light to throw any doubt on any of the above requiring either a re-investigation of the Mahatma Gandhi murder case or, to constitute a fresh fact finding commission with respect to the same. It noted that during the entire episode of the unveiling of the conspiracy to murder Mahatma Gandhi, no suggestion has been put by any of the advocates either from the defence or prosecution or by the trial court that there was a larger conspiracy involving others apart from those accused

The petitioner had argu-ed that the pistol by which Godse shot Mahatma had a seven-bullet chamber. Three shots were fired and the police recovered the remaining four unspent bullets. There was no way the fourth shot could have come from this pistol. It had to be from the gun of a second assassin, no trace of whom survives in any record.

On this contention, the report said Mahatma Gandhi had suffered injuries from three bullets only. From the above documents, it is clear that there was no fourth bullet, which was fired upon Mahatma Gandhi.