The collection of 18 letters in English and Urdu to Maulana Bari, late founder of Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind, written between 1918-24, some in Gandhi's own hand, came under the hammer at Sotheby's yesterday.

London's former Indian High Commissioner Dr L M Singhvi persuaded the NRIs Ghulam Kadir Noon and Nat Puri to intervene, and together they paid 21,172 pounds sterling to acquire the rare papers from the auction. Noon is a renowned Indian readymade food moghul and Puri, runs an engineering empire.

Most of the letters, run into 38 pages of original text and 26 pages of translation, and are all on yellowed Indian paper.

Singhvi played a key role in the acquisition of the documents. He said, ``It was essential to get these rare papers back as they are a part of our nationalheritage.''