No need to reinvestigate Mahatma Gandhi assassination case, amicus curiae tells SC

The Supreme Court was on Monday told that there was no need to reinvestigate Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as the conspiracy behind the murder and the identity of assailant Nathuram Vinayak Godse have already been duly established.

Senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, who was appointed as an amicus curiae to assist in the matter, has filed a report in the apex court and said that claims regarding the existence of a British special intelligence unit by the name 'Force 136' and its alleged role in the assassination was not substantiated.

The report said that records of the case established that an independent judiciary had adjudged the crime of Nathuram Vinayak Godse and other accused in the matter, and justice was served.

Gandhi was shot dead at point-blank range in New Delhi on January 30, 1948, by Godse, a right-wing advocate of Hindu nationalism. The assassination case had led to the conviction and execution of Godse and Narayan Apte on November 15, 1949.

Sharan has filed the report on the PIL by Mumbai-based Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, who sought reopening of investigation on several grounds, claiming it was one of the biggest cover-ups in history.

"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," the report said.

"No substantive material has come to light to throw any doubt on any of the above requiring either a reinvestigation of the Mahatma Gandhi murder case or, to constitute a fresh fact-finding commission with respect to the same," it said.

A bench presided over by Justice S A Bobde is scheduled to hear the matter on January 12.