Mahatma Gandhi for many is an icon of peace and satyagraha. But an equal number probably believe he was a self-seeking hypocrite who played favourites and compromised India's fortunes. The murder of India's best-known son has never been adequately explained or investigated. On March 28, 2018, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition that sought reinvestigation of the circumstances surrounding the assassination, saying:
"The High Court declined to entertain the petition and go into two questions raised i.e. whether the four bullets were fired as alleged and whether the Kapur Commission Report should be reopened after the period of 46 years...
While undoubtedly the nation has right to know the truth, such a right cannot be invoked where the truth is already well known merely because some academic research raises a different perspective in law... We are, therefore, not prepared to accept the fourth bullet theory propounded by the petitioner."
A.K.Srikumar's The Eighth Bullet tells the story of the mysterious bullet that may have martyred the Mahatma and where it might have come from. Was it a sexually frustrated grandniece, a woman who loved Netaji, or an unelected PM's ambitious daughter? DSP Jaswant Singh aims to find out.
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A. K. Srikumar
Writer and translator A.K.Srikumar is the author of several bestselling novels (The Begum’s Secret[Penguin], Mahaveer[Rupa], etc.), prize winning children’s books (Operation Polo, The Shami Tree, Wolf!, etc.[CBT]), and translations (Vishwadarshan-A Glimpse of the Universe[Fingerprint]; Mohammad Rafi, My Abba[Westland]; The Vanishing Generations[Westland]).
“The Eighth Bullet” took shape in the author’s mind when the Supreme Court dismissed (2018) a petition to reopen the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case. That the murder of modern India’s greatest son should receive such short shrift from both historians and our courts was the provocation for this novel, which answers many questions and poses a few new ones.
