JAIPUR: A man worth his weight in gold! That was Lal Bahadur Shastri. Just how much did he weigh? Going by the heap of gold stored in the Udaipur Collectorate treasury, the answer is 56 kgs. About 55 years after the death of the former Prime Minister, this gold will be handed over to the government.
This was meant to weigh the late Prime Minister 56 years ago. The Sessions Court in Udaipur on Friday directed that the gold should be handed over to the Central GST Department. In 1965, the gold collected was worth Rs 4.76 lakh. Now, it is valued at around Rs 27.69 crore.
After weighing the former Prime Minister, who died of a heart attack while on an official visit to Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan) where he had gone for a peace summit with Pakistan, the money was supposed to be donated to the National Defence Fund. However, the ceremony could not be held because of Shastri’s sudden demise in Tashkent.
This gold has a long history. It originally belonged to an affluent business family in a small town called Chhoti Sadri in Chittorgarh district. The gold was handed over to one Ganpat Lal for safe custody after it was found in an old haveli of the family of Gunwant Lal. Later, when Gunwant demanded the gold back from Ganpat, he returned only a part of it. Subsequently, Gunwant lodged an FIR against Ganpat in December, 1965.
Once the FIR was lodged against him, Ganpat deposited the gold with the Udaipur Collector and requested that Prime Minister Shastri be weighed with it during his visit to Udaipur. The gold then was to be deposited for the National Defence Fund. But since Shastri passed away in Tashkent, the gold remained in the custody of the Udaipur Collector.
After that, Ganpat and Gunwant were involved in a long-drawn legal battle over the ownership of the gold. In 2009, an application was made in the Udaipur CJM Court to hand over this gold to the Excise Department. The court has now ordered the gold be handed over to the Central GST Department.
Over to GST Dept
The gold weighing 56 kgs with a market value of Rs 27.69 crore will be handed over to the Central GST Department. In 1965, value of this gold was Rs 4.76 lakh.