Indian Express: New Delhi: Tuesday,
February 21, 2017.
Making it
clear that public should know about the issues associated with the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the CIC has directed the PMO to disclose action
taken on the J L Kapur Commission report on Gandhi’s assassination.
The
Commission said this while transferring an RTI application seeking records
related to the assassination of Gandhi on January 30, 1948, subsequent probe
and the court case.
“The petition
should be transferred to the PMO for “information” and necessary action to
formulate appropriate policy to build archives of records regarding Gandhi’s
assassination, investigation, trial, punishment, official correspondence, and
action taken on the recommendations of J L Kapur Commission,” said the
commission.
The
Commission also recommended the top office to build exhaustive archives on
Mahatma Gandhi on the lines of recent declassification of files pertaining to
Subhash Chandra Bose.
The government
had appointed a Judicial Commission under the chairmanship of J L Kapur to
inquire into the conspiracy angle and other aspects of the assassination of
Gandhi.
Information
Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said that a copy of the Kapur report is available
with Indian Law Institute, New Delhi which has a treasure trove of information
about Gandhi’s death which needs to be probed and an archive could be built in
the National Archives of India (NAI).
The
information commissioner also cited an article by noted historian and lawyer A
G Noorani in a English daily and said the court had earlier exonerated Savarkar
for want of corroborative evidence in support of the approver’s confession.
“However,
Justice Kapur’s findings are all too clear. He concluded: “All these facts
taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to
murder by Savarkar and his group” (Noorani, AG (March 15-28, 2003). “Savarkar
and Gandhi”.),” he said.
Earlier,
responding to a petition moved by Ashutosh Bansal, Information Commissioner
Sridhar Acharyulu had said in its order that along with Nathuram Godse's
statement all other relevant records related to the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi should be “pro-actively disclosed.”
.JPG)
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