Was former prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination really a "suicide through arranged murder"? Looks like we'll never know. The Gujarat high court, headed by acting Chief Justice V M Sahai, threw out a plea seeking Gandhi's murder to be declared a suicide on Monday, 29 years after the petitioner first approached court.
So was it because it was factually inaccurate? Nope.
It's because the petitioner, one Navnitlal Shah, never once came forward to press the case.
"The prayer of the petitioner is to declare that Mrs Indira Gandhi committed suicide, which cannot be granted. The petition is accordingly dismissed," Justice Sahai said, throwing out the petition.
"No one has put in appearance to press this petition," the court noted. This was the first time the petition had come up for hearing.
According to the petition, which was filed in 1986 — two years after Gandhi was assassinated in her residence by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh — Gandhi's assassination was actually an orchestrated suicide. The plea claimed she arranged her murder so her son Rajiv Gandhi could be elevated to prime minister.
Further, it alleged that the country's first and only woman prime minister had "committed suicide through arranged murder to give power to her son Rajiv Gandhi as hereditary successor and the elections of 1984 were based on national sacrifice made by Indira Gandhi."
Seems like some mysteries of history will remain.
(with PTI inputs)
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