Is Shashtri's Death in Tashkent A Murder?
Who Killed India's 2nd Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri? India's Biggest Cover-Up.
We all celebrate birthday or Jayanti of so-called 'Mahatma' Mohandas Gandhi on 2nd October but very few people know that 2nd October is the birth date of our great & 2nd Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. Lal Bahadur Shastri ji’s mysterious death is the chapter in our history about which no one talks much and neither do the youth show much interest in this chapter but it is very important for us to know what happened with Shastri ji on the night of 11th Jan 1966 in Tashkent, USSR. This thing is not taught to you in any book or in your school but you can learn a lot by knowing about it.
We all know that the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, has remained a secret or a mystery since 1966. There are so many conspiracy theories circulating on the internet regarding his death, but we do not have any official information available with us, because the government has never got this matter investigated thoroughly, but we have many such facts which prove that Shastri Ji did not die of heart attack. Let's dive into those fact and start understanding the matter with facts
Note: All the information written in this article has been taken either from the verified reports, books and from the Parliament of India debates. I will also attach links to some of the Parliament debates and some you can read by visiting the Parliament Archives website by mentioned dates. .There are some information that I have found out after doing my own research like the Russian newspaper articles, Shastri ji's wife interview etc.
So there are two views on Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji's Death -
The first is that he dies due heart attack (Official or Government's View).
The Second is - Death by Poisoning (Family & Friends View).
(i) Killed by USSR's KGB.
(ii) Killed by American CIA.
(iii) Victim of Indian Political Intrigue.
Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji & Pakistan President Ayub Khan was present in summit organised by the then Premier of the Soviet Union Alexie Kosygin on 10th Jan, 1966 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (USSR).
Officials present in Tashkent (PM Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Delegation)
Indian Ambassador to USSR Triloki Nath Kaul (T.N. Kaul)
Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda
Foreign Secretary CS Jha
Home Secretary LP Singh
Joint Secretary CP Srivastva
Press Secretary to PM Kuldip Nayyar
After signing the Tashkent Declaration with Pakistan President Ayub Khan at 4:00PM (10th Jan, 1966) PM Shastri attend a lunch at 8:00PM and at approx 10:00PM Shastri Ji came to his residence or villa provided by the USSR to him.
People present in the villa where Shastri Ji was staying -
Security Officer R. Kapur
Personal Physician Dr. R.N. Chugh
Private Secretary J.N. Sahai
Personal Assistant M.M.N. Sharma
Personal Attendant Ram Nath
Cooks (Including Mohammed Jan) Cook of T.N. Kaul who was posted at Indian Embassy, Moscow.
When Shastri ji came back from the party, Indian embassy’s cook Mohammed Jan asked him "What would you like to eat sir?"
First Shastri ji said that “I am not hungry right now but after sometime he said that cook something good”.
And then Mohammed Jan brought a vegetable of spinach and potatoes for him (Palak aur Aalu Ki Sabzi). And Shastri ji ate that sabzi.
At 10:20PM Shastri Ji talked at his home in New Delhi. (In India it's 9:50PM).
At 12:00 AM media people came to Shastri Ji for photo and PM allowed them to take his photos from outside the window of his room and PM’s attendant Ram Nath were in the room of PM Shastri till 12:30AM. Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji goes to bed to sleep at 12:30 AM, 11 Jan, 1966.
At 01:20 AM everyone is busy in packing because next day Indian delegation was going back to New Delhi, they all suddenly hear a sound of walking and when they all saw at the gate, Shastri Ji was standing in front of them and from PM's face it looked like he was in trouble, the PM paused a while and asked for the doctor and turned back, immediately R. Kapur and MMN Sharma hold him and JN Sahai went to Dr. RN Chugh because Dr. Chugh was sleeping at that time.
When R. Kapur & MMN Sahai escorted PM to his room, Shastri Ji started coughing loudly, he was holding chest and he was continuously saying 'O Mere Ram O Mere Bhagwan' and immediately Dr. RN Chugh went to Shastri Ji's room, he started examining the PM but breathing of PM had stopped, efforts by Dr. Chugh to revive the PM through an intramuscular injection, artificial respiration and massage proved fruitless and nothing happened, Dr. Chugh started crying saying 'Babuji Aapne Mujhe Samay Nahi Diya'.
Some Russian doctors also came in Shastri Ji's room but nothing happened because pulse of PM was gone.
On 11 Jan, 1966 at 9:30 AM Shastri Ji's dead body reached Tashkent's Airport and USSR Premier Kosygin and Pak President Ayub Khan pays tribute to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji on the airport and Shastri Ji's body was landed in New Delhi at around 2:30 PM in afternoon and reached to Shastri Ji's official residence (10th Janpath, New Delhi) at around 4:00 PM on 11 Jan, 1966.
First time on 14 Feb, 1966 Parliament give tribute to the Former and 2nd Prime Minister of India Late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji.
14 Feb, 1966 - Member of Parliament Atal Bihari Vajpayee raised some questions on suspicious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji in the Parliament.
16 Feb, 1966 - First official statement by the government in Parliament, government or the then External Affairs Minister Shri Swaran Singh shows a certificate to Parliament with signature of some doctors including Dr. RN Chugh & UA Aripov, in which doctors mention that Shastri Ji had some symptoms of Heart Attack on 10th & 11th January, so that's why we can say that the reason of the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri was Heart Attack.
After this statement of EAM Swaran Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee said 'According to the press reports, the last thing that Shastri ji took before going to sleep was a glass of milk. I wonder why no mention has been made of this fact in the statement. It was reported from Tashkent by Indian correspondents that the last thing that Shastri ji took was a glass of milk. I should like to know who was the person who offered that glass of milk'.
Swaran Singh - I cannot say that because the service was always done by Shri Ram Nath, the attendant.
Note: I am attaching the link of that entire debate of Parliament (Full Debate, From Page No. 96)
A New Debate!
Now the year was 1967 and Indira Gandhi had become the Prime Minister of India. People stopped talking about Shastri ji’s mysterious death after 1967, government, media, opposition or public no one was talking about Shastri ji after 1967, a letter was leaked in 1966, it was debated for some days but after that everyone had forgotten this thing.
But in 1970 this matter again came in public and people started talking about it, and why people were talking about this matter in 1970, there were many reasons for that too. One reason for this was that in 1970, people demanded from the government that an commission should be made to investigate Netaji's plane crash theory, now people told the government that if you are making a commission for Netaji, then make a commission for Shastri ji too. Some MPs like Raj Narayana, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lokenath Mishra, MK Mohta, TN Singh and many other were forcing the government to investigate the mysterious death of Shastri ji. It was not that only the Lawmakers of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh or the Lawmakers of the opposition are pressurising the government to investigate this matter, there were also many Congress MPs who wanted the matter to be investigated but the communists were supporting the government.
But in the meantime, there was a Indian National Congress leader, Mahavir Prasad Bhargava, he put many important facts related to Shastri ji's mysterious death in front of the people and directly questioned the government. He raised questions on many things told by the government like -
Question: When government was asked in 1967 ‘why Shastri ji had to get up from his room and go to call the doctor, was there no telephone in his room’?
Ans: The government had given the answer that there were 3 phones in his “room”, but when this matter came up again in public, the government told that he had 3 phones in his “suite”.
Room and suite are two different things, Mahavir Prasad said to the government that you have lied through the words, you have twisted the words that there were phones in Shastri ji’s room but the truth is that there were phones in his suite not in his room. So a big lie of government was caught by Mahavir Prasad Bhargava. Mahavir Prasad Bhargava made an allegation on the government that the Soviets had offered a postmortem but the government of India refused. He asked the government “Why was his body blue and black? If it is a normal heart attack and death, there is no transformation in the body”.
Now after all this, the Government of India had issued a statement through the immediate Home Minister YB Chavan. The Home Minister said in his statement on 4 April, 1970 -
We are unnecessarily to create suspicious about Shastri ji’s death when there is no basis for it.
No complaint against Cook Jan Mohammed’s charcter or antecedents.
There was nothing suspicious about the death of our dear Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. As long as I have no suspicious about it, how can I support the demand for enquiry?
Now when on 4 April 1970, the government had refused that we would not do any inquiry into the matter, something happened in October 1970 that this issue was become very important again. What happened was that a magazine named “Dharma Yug” published the interview of Shastri ji's wife Smt. Lalita Shastri in its magazine on 4th October 1970, for the first and last time Shastri ji's wife gave an interview to someone and she openly expressed her views in front of the journalists of Dharma Yug. After Shastri was cremated, Lalita Shastri had spoke to Shastri ji's attendant Ram Nath. Lalita Shastri told many such things in her interview which no one knew till now -
Shastri felt heaviness in the head and asked Ram Nath to leave.
Pointed to the flask but did not take water from it when offered. Once again pointed in the same direction. That Flask never came back.
When some people pointed to the blue spots in the face of Shastri ji's body, government officials quickly smeared the whole face with sandal paste or Chandan.
Officials did'nt allow family members to go near the body when it was being bathed.
There were surgical marks on the stomach and a hole on neck, and the 'blood' was still oozing.
After the interview of Shastri ji’s wife, his son Hari Krishna Shastri gave a statement on 23 November 1970 to the media that his family 'suspected foul play from the very outset' but when he conveyed his suspicious to 'certain central leaders' soon after his father's body arrived, they asked him 'not to say any such thing at that time'.
Now after all these statements, there was a ruckus in the Parliament of India, all the MPs were asking questions to the government on the facts that Shastri ji’s wife and son told in the media.
After the all pressure of public and MPs Government of India give a last statement in Parliament on 18 November 1970 related to Shastri ji's death. The government said -
Doctors had issued a certificate related to this matter in 1966, which we also presented in the front of all the Parliament members and the second certificate was issued by Soviet Doctors in 1970.
Nothing has come to notice which could create the slightest doubt about Jan Mohammed's trustworthiness.
Shastri's body was embalmed to check quick decomposition. Change of colour of the body "quite natural" consequent to embalming.
Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda has no recollection of anyone having spoken to him about a post-mortem examination.
Since November 1970, no government or leader has talked about Shastri ji's death in Parliament and this matter had ended by the government.
After 1970!
Now this issue was closed in Parliament but the people started thinking about it again. Now people started getting doubts and between 1970 and 2010, many such facts came in front of us which could prove that Shastri ji's death was not normal at all, and some doubts are -
Eyewitnesses never spoke to the Media like Dr. RN Chugh and Ram Nath. Dr. Chugh died in a very strange way. After the Emergency, everyone knew that the Congress would lose the elections and the Janata Party government would be formed and Shastri ji's matter could open again, but 7 to 8 days before the elections, there is an accident in which Dr. Chugh dies. Dr. Chugh his wife, his daughter and a son were going in the car. A truck came from behind and hit their car, when Dr. Chugh got out of the car to see if the car was damaged or not, the same truck hit him again and Dr. Chugh, his wife and their son died at the site of the accident, his daughter's life was saved but she went into a coma-like state. So from any angle this was not a normal accident.
1991: Former KGB Officer said in Soviet Land magazine (A official magazine of Soviet Embassy, New Delhi). "When Shastri started getting a seizure, the KGB was listening". In the room where Shastri ji was staying, KGB had put small mics so that they could listen to the the things. But even after this, the Indian Foreign Ministry did'nt asked the Russian officials about it and did not ask for any tapes that KGB had recorded from Shastri ji's room.
1996: Ex-Home Secretary LP Singh who was in Tashkent in 1966 said that Soviets offered us a postmortem but our government was refused this offer.
1998: Butler Ahmed Sattarov (One of the Russian cook in Shastri ji’s villa on Jan, 1966) to Russian newspaper. "The agencies was arrested us at 4AM 11 Jan, 1966 on suspicious of poisoning Indian PM Shastri". So from this it was proved that the doubts about Shastri ji's death were not started in India the doubts was started immediately after his death.
In 2009 Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of External Affairs in reply to RTI, they said that they does not have any documents related to this matter.
Is it not strange that the Prime Minister of our country has died abroad but our government does not have a single document related to it? But when the RTI was filed for the second time, the Ministry of External Affairs said that we cannot give you the papers related to this matter.
In 2011, when RTI application was sent to Central Information Commission, the CIC of that time Satyananda Mishra asked the officials of the PMO and the Ministry of External Affairs to show them the documents of Shastri ji's death which the government have and when the government showed those documents to CIC, then CIC also refused to disclose those top secret documents.
October 2012: Another witness Kuldip Nayyar who was the Press Secretary of Lal Bahadur Shastri said to CNN-News 18 - “TN Kaul who got promotion after Shastri ji’s death rang me up to issue a statement against poison theory. He badgered me literally 4-5 times”.
Now it was the year 2013 and a Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta published in detail the interview of the same cook Butler Ahmed Sattarov who had said in 1998 that “We were arrested in the morning of 11 Jan 1966 for poisoning Indian PM Shastri. That cook said in the interview "I was woken by an officer of the KGB, who told him that "they suspected the Indian Prime Minister has been poisoned". I and three others were handcuffed and taken to a small town some 30 kilometres away from Tashkent. They were locked up in a basement. After a while, they brought the India chef Mohammed Jan. "We thought that it must have been that man who poisoned Shastri".
Now you guys understand one thing, whenever the Indian government was asked about the cook Mohammed Jan, who worked in the Indian Embassy or the employee of the Government of India, the government said every time that we do not have any doubt on him but the KGB had arrested him and release him after sometime, the government had never told this fact in the Parliament and according to the protocol, the foreign agency cannot arrest an employee working in the embassy of any other country without the permission of his or her government. So from this it is also confirmed that the KGB must have taken permission for this from the Indian Ambassador (TN Kaul).
TN Kaul was a very rude, blunt and politically biased diplomat if anyone knew the most about Shastri ji's death it was TN Kaul. TN Kaul wrote many books and gave many interviews but no where he say a word about Shastri ji's death. The question is, what personal enmity TN Kaul had with Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri or TN Kaul was following the instructions of his political bosses?
New Age Investigation & Some Hidden Facts
When in 2013 some people took out the data that which injections were given to Shastri ji by Dr. Chugh and Soviet doctors and when that data was shown to the senior Cardiologists and Pathologists, they all clearly said that Shastri ji had not had a heart attack, he was given poison and doctors used these injections as antidotes to that poison.
Dr. Ajay Kumar Gupta said: “From the photographs of dead Lal Bahadur Shastri, a strong suspicious arises it may be a ase of death due to some vegetable poision acting on the heart, which can be excluded only by a through and detailed Medico-legal post-mortem examination. It is not clear why the wife and sons of Shastri ji did not personally go to the officer-in-charge of the local police station, and lodge a written request for holding post-mortem examination.”
Dr. Nirmalya Roychowdhury said: "If the deceased was not suffering from any serious inter-current illness, then the case is considered to be of poisoning unless proven otherwise. A post-mortem investigation needs to be done in such cases under the internation laws.
The CIA had declassified a report, in which it was mentioned that what techniques were used by the Soviets during the cold war to find out the cause of death. It was also mentioned in that report that instead of post-mortem, Soviets could find out the cause of death by making small cuts in the dead body, some similar cuts were in the back of neck and on stomach of Shastri ji, expert doctors told the reason for the cut that we can also find out from the spinal fluid whether poison has been given or not. You can read that CIA report by visiting the CIA's official website.
In an statement Jagdish Kodesia, Former Delhi Congress President said "We saw a cut at the back of the neck and a cut on the stomach where sticking plaster had been pasted to block outflow. But the cut at the neck was pouring blood and the sheets, pillows and the clothes used by him were all soaked in blood. We approached the leadership with the request that the body be sent for post-mortem. We were told not to make such request as this would adversely affect international relations”.
Ques: What is my mind about it?
Answer: I have put all the facts in front of you, now you can decide yourself whether Shastri ji's death was natural or a murder. But personally I believe that Shastri ji's death was not natural, he did not die of natural heart attack.
I have kept all the facts in front of you in a very concise manner.
I don’t belive in conspiracy theories at all and we also have a lot of conspiracy theories available related to this matter, because there is a very large section in India that specialises in spreading the Conspiracy Theories. I just trust on facts because “Tathya Hi Satya Hai”.
Killed By USSR’s KGB - See, now from this article, we can find out that KGB was not involved in this because the first thing is that they arrest their own cook after the death of LBS, a soviet cook admitted. The second thing is that they offered a post-mortem, Home Secretary LP Singh admitted. If KGB killed Shastri ji , they would not have arrested their own cook and offered post-mortem. Maybe later the Soviets came to know that Shastri ji was poisoned.
CIA Killed Shastri - Shastri wrote to President Lyndon Johnson on 6 January 1966 from Tashkent. Thanking Johnson for help to meet the critical shortage of food grains in India, Shastra praised Johnson's effort to bring about a peace in Vietnam. Shastri stated that he and his wife were looking forward to their visit to the United States. After the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the US President was very sad and he also gave a tribute to LBS by a statement. Tapes of what the US President spoke to his Foreign Minister or US’s Secretary of State and his wife after Shastri ji's death are available on the internet you can also read/listen those tapes, US President Johnson was really sad. In the tapes Johnson told his Secretary of State Dean Rusk that he wanted to go to India to pay his last respects to Lal Bahadur Shastri, but he was advised that you should not go to India send the Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Victim of Indian Political Intrigue - All the facts are in front of you, think for yourself. All I can say is that Indira Gandhi's government has suppressed this matter too much. Now it would be wrong to raise a straight finger, that too on a woman who has been the Prime Minister of India for 14 years. I cannot say anything more than that because there has never been any official inquiry into this matter, but it is absolutely true that Shastri's relationship with Indira Gandhi was not at all good, he wanted to remove Indira Gandhi from his cabinet.
On every 2nd October not only Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday, but Shastri’s birthday should also be celebrated.
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- Poorvam Tomar, OSCP Hacker, Cryptographer and Geopolitical Observer.
Jai Hind 🇮🇳