Indian politicians whose untimely deaths sparked controversies, number 4 will shock you

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 in the compound of Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti). Gandhi was killed at age 78 in central New Delhi by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune, Maharashtra. Godse was a Hindu nationalist, a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, as well as a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary organization. 

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 at her residence in New Delhi. Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, which was an Indian military action carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the holy Golden temple of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab. 

Sanjay Gandhi died in an aircraft crash near Delhi's Safdarjung airport. According to the eyewitness reports, the political, who was also a daredevil pilot, was doing acrobatics with his small aircraft, when it plunged down. The aircraft plunged towards ground and tailspined. But there were many people who smelled conspiracy behind this crash. Many said that Sanjay, who wielded unbelievable dominance over Indira Gandhi's government, had his own set of enemies in politics, who plotted his death.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first Indian Prime Minister to die while in office. Shahtri died in Uzbekistan where he was attending a summit to sign Tashkent declaration with Paksitan. The night of the summit Shastriji died of multiple heart attacks, following which his wife alleged that he was poisoned. Suspiciously, his body had also turned blue after he died which lead to further investigation, however the butler who served Shahstri was later freed due to lack of evidence.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was killed in a helicopter crashed on a hillock, about 49 nautical miles east of Kurnool. Reddy’s helicopter crashed an hour later after its take off. The charred bodies of 60-year-old Dr. Reddy and others and the wreckage of the twin-engined Bell 430 helicopter were located on a hillock, eight kms from Kurnool, 23 hours after it went missing while flying to Chittoor in south Andhra Pradesh.

The death of Subhash Chandra Bose is one of the biggest mystery of all times. The last days of the Indian politician are still shrouded in mystery despite several commissions of inquiry. According to the reports by the British government, Bose died in a plane crash in Taipei in 1945. However, several other reports claimed thathe was taken captive by the Soviet army and died years later in Seberia. 

Lalit Narayan Mishra, who was the the power behind Indira Gandhi's throne during the 1970s, died in a blast in Samistipur. The politician from Bihar was on a tour to unveil the new Samastipur- Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line, when a blast took place, in which he was  critically injured and he died the next day in Danapur Railway hospital. Some aides close to Indira Gandhi pointed fingers at CIA for the politician’s tragic death. 

On 11 February 1968, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, the then president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was found dead under mysterious circumstances at the Mughalsarai railway station near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. His death was investifated by many agencies, including CBI, which claimed that Upadhyay was killed by either train robbers or luggage-lifters on the Patna bound trains. However, there are numerous conspiracy theories surrounding his death.

The former Gujarat Home Minister, Haren Pandya, was shot dead in his car in Ahmedabad in 2003. The politician was killed in the morning of March 26, 2003, when he was out on a walk in the Law Garden area. Following investifatio, the Gujarat High Court in 2011 had acquitted 12 people, including the prime accused Asghar Ali in the murder case. 

Syama Prasad Mookerjee was mysteriously found dead in 1953 while he was under detention by the government of Jammu and Kashmir. He was arrested illegally by the police on the orders of Sheikh Abdullah’s government on May 11, 1953. A month later, the Hindu leader died during his detention in June 1953 at a prison in Srinagar.

In 1995, the former Punjab Chief Minister was killed in a huge blast outside the state secretariat. There were total of 14 people, including three commandos, who died with the chief minister. The militants who planted the bomb were later arrested. Beant Singh was credited with the end of Khalistani terrorism in Punjab. 

Chandrashekar Prasad was assassinated by sharpshooters allegedly in the employ of Mohammad Shahabuddin of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, while addressing street corner meetings in Bihar. His death was followed by nationwide protests by pro-Left students. Chandrashekhar Prasad was a local 'dabangg' from Siwan and came to join the CPI-ML after he finished his studies in Delhi's Jayawaharlal Nehru University.