Mahatma assassination FIR has details even many Gandhians do not know of

Sixty-five years after Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down on January 30, 1948, not many are aware of several details of the assassination case mentioned in the First Information Report (FIR). The FIR mentions details like the time he was shot, how he had fallen down, which room in Birla House he was taken to after the shooting and who had filed the case. Even some Gandhians said they are not aware of some of the facts mentioned in the FIR.

The FIR reveals that Tughlak Road police station was hardly "two furlongs" from Birla House in New Delhi where Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse and that Nand Lal Mehta was the complainant in the case.

The English translation of the FIR that finds a place in Indian law journals as a historic case narrates the chain of events on the day Gandhi was assassinated. The FIR mentions that the assailant was "Narayan Vinayak Godse, a resident of Poona", who was immediately captured.

"....Around 10 minutes past five in the evening, Mahatma Gandhi left his room at Birla House for the prayer ground. Sister Abha Gandhi and sister Sanno Gandhi were accompanying him. Mahatma was walking with his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters. Two more girls were there in the group..," the FIR, based on Mehta's statement, reads.

It adds, "Having crossed the garden, Mahatma climbed the concrete steps towards the prayer place. People were standing on both the sides and approximately three feet of vacant space was left for the Mahatma to pass through. As per the custom the Mahatma greeted the people with folded hands. He had barely covered six or seven steps when a person whose name I learnt later as Narayan Vinayak Godse, a resident of Poona, stepped closer and fired three shots from a pistol at the Mahatma from barely 2/3 feet distance which hit the Mahatma in his stomach and chest and blood started flowing."

... contd.

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