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| - Fact Check: No, Meenakashi Lekhi's father-in-law didn't defend Nathuram Godse in court
A false claim is doing the rounds on social media that MoS for External Affairs and Culture Meenakashi Lekhi's father-in-law PN Lekhi had defended Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.
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India Today Fact Check
No, PN Lekhi had not defended Godse in the court. In fact, Nathuram Godse had declined to be represented by any lawyer and had represented himself.
Many netizens are claiming that MoS for External Affairs and Culture Meenakashi Lekhi’s father-in-law PN Lekhi was a traitor who had defended Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.
This comes in the backdrop of Lekhi’s recent statement where she had called the protesting farmers ‘mawali’. The statement had stirred a controversy following which Lekhi had apologised.
Criticising Meenakashi for her statement, a Facebook user wrote, “Meenakashi Lekhi is the daughter-in-law of traitor Pran Nath Lekhi who had left no stone unturned to save Nathuram Godse from getting convicted in the court. And now, Meenakashi Lekhi has called the farmers ‘mawali’!”
This claim is quite viral on Facebook.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that Meenakashi Lekhi’s father-in-law Pran Nath Lekhi had not defended Nathuram Godse in the court. It is noteworthy that Nathuram had refused to be represented by a lawyer and had represented himself in the court.
AFWA probe
Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse when he was going for his regular prayers in Delhi on January 30, 1948. Nine accused were tried for the conspiracy and his murder. The trial of Mahatma Gandhi’s murder case began in May 1948.
We looked into some history books to find out whether there was any connection between Nathuram Godse’s trial and lawyer PN Lekhi.
With the help of keyword search, we found an archived version of the book ‘May it please your honour Nathuram Godse’ written by Gopal Godse, Nathuram’s brother.
An excerpt from page number 20 of this book says, “Nathuram preferred to argue his own case. He argued for two days without challenging his conviction under the murder charge.”
This makes it clear that no lawyer had defended Nathuram Godse in the trial case of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
Another book ‘The murder of the Mahatma’ written by GD Khosla, former Chief Justice of Punjab who had heard the appeals of Nathuram Godse and others and had given the verdict in the assassination also establishes the same thing.
On page number 19 of this book GD Khosla says, “Nathuram Godse had declined to be represented by a lawyer and had made a prayer that he should be permitted to appear in person and argue his appeal himself. This prayer had been granted, and so he stood in a specially constructed dock. His small defiant figure with flashing eyes and close-cropped hair offered a remarkable and immediately noticeable contrast to the long row of placid and prosperous-looking lawyers who represented his accomplices.”
Godse was sentenced to death on November 8, 1949, and was hanged on November 15, 1949.
PN Lekhi was a well-known lawyer who participated in the Quit India Movement and was imprisoned in 1945 and 1946 for his role in the 'Free INA Prisoners' movement. During the Emergency, he was detained under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and had to spend more than half of the imprisonment in solitary confinement.
He had defended Satwant Singh one of the accused in the Indira Gandhi murder case. He had also represented Zaheera Sheikh, a key witness in the Best Bakery case of the Gujarat riots, in the Supreme Court.
There is no evidence anywhere of him defending Nathuram Godse in the court. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 85.
This claim had also gone viral in the year 2018. At that time, Meenakashi had refuted it and had said that she would take the matter to the police.
Spreading lies and rumours is an offence both in real life and on twitter , I am reporting this to the police and Twitter, since it has come from a verified handle, will see at the police station #Twitter #FakeNews https://t.co/l40HV2Z7tJ — Meenakashi Lekhi (@M_Lekhi) January 24, 2018
Evidently, the claim of Meenakashi Lekhi’s father-in-law having defended Nathuram Godse in the court has no basis.
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