New Delhi: As the Modi government and the BJP attempt to appropriate Mahatma Gandhi, one of the party’s own MPs Sunday stoked a controversy over Gandhi’s death.
In a tweet that has gone viral on microblogging site Twitter, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy called for the probe into Gandhi’s death to be reopened, alluding that it could not be fully established that the father of the nation was shot by Nathuram Godse.
“1st question: Why no post mortem or autopsy on Gandhiji’s body? 2nd : Why Abha and Manu as direct eyewitnesses not questioned in court? 3rd: How many empty chambers in Godse’s revolver? Italian revolver “untraceable”!! Why? We need to re-open the case,” Swamy tweeted.
1st question: Why no post mortem or autopsy on Gandhiji's body? 2nd : Why Abha and Manu as direct eyewitnesses not questioned in court? 3rd: How many empty chambers in Godse's revolver? Italian revolver "untraceable"!! Why? We need to re-open the case
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 16, 2020
Page 52 quotes Associated Press International journo: he heard at 5.05 pm 4 shots [not 3 as PP in Court later told court]. Godse deposed he fired only 2. Same API journalist said Gandhi declared dead in Birla House at 5.40PM i.e., he was alive for 35 mins.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 16, 2020
SC petition
The Supreme Court had dismissed a petition seeking an inquiry into Gandhi’s assassination in 2019. It was filed by an I-T professional, Dr Pankaj Kumudchandra Phadnis, in October 2017.
The petition had stated that the assassination needed to be probed as there was some ambiguity over whether the fourth bullet was fired by Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin.
The petition also stated that the two alleged conspirators — Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte — were hanged on 15 November 1949, 71 days before the Supreme Court of India came into existence on 26 January, 1950. This meant that the conspirators or their families did not get a chance to challenge the verdict of the High Court of East Punjab.
Thus, petitioner claimed that “Gandhi murder trial has not yet attained legal finality”.
In 1966, the Kapur Commission was set up to probe the assassination of Gandhi. In a book on the assassination, author and activist Teesta Setalvad stated that the commission’s three-volume report has been absent from the public domain. The report, the book claims, contains evidence like intelligence reports, oral and documentary evidence.
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