R.K. Dhawan

R.K. (Rajinder Kumar) Dhawan was Indira Gandhi's personal secretary from 1962 until her death in 1984, and later a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha and a Minister of State. Gulf News gives his birth as 16 July 1937 at Chiniot, now in Pakistan, and The Tribune reports that he died in New Delhi on 6 August 2018, aged 81. In this history he is the aide at her side when she was shot, and the man whom the Thakkar Commission's report suspected and a later police investigation, Rajiv Gandhi said, cleared.

Before Blue Star: Gurmit Singh writes that on 25 April 1984 Sant Harchand Singh Longowal wrote to Dhawan, as the Prime Minister's personal secretary, warning that the life of Gurcharan Singh, the Akali Dal's office secretary, was in danger and asking that he be protected (History of Sikh Struggles, vol. II, p. 96).

At the shooting: The First Information Report, as Gurmit Singh prints it, calls him her Special Assistant and puts him at her left as she walked from her residence to her office. The statement of Head Constable Narain Singh on which the FIR was based lists him among those who saw the shooting. The Supreme Court judgment in the trial of the accused records that she was carried to the car for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, with Dhawan in the front seat.

The Thakkar Commission: The commission under Justice M.P. Thakkar, which sat in camera, submitted its final report on 27 February 1986 (Supreme Court judgment). The government kept it back on grounds of national security until Rajiv Gandhi released it in March 1989; the Christian Science Monitor reported that it alleges Dhawan "may have been involved in a conspiracy to kill the prime minister". Rajiv Gandhi, who had recently reappointed him, said that a later police investigation had cleared him of any complicity, and a summary of the police report was also released that week. In 2018 Dhawan told Gulf News that he "had absolutely no clue" of any plot, that the judge had formed his opinion before examining the papers, that no notice under section 8B of the Commissions of Inquiry Act was sent to him, and that he faced "miseries and surveillance by investigating agencies" for about five years.

Key moments

• 1962: begins work for Indira Gandhi (Gulf News).
• 25 April 1984: Longowal's letter to him about Gurcharan Singh.
• 31 October 1984: at her side when she is shot.
• 27 February 1986: the Thakkar Commission submits its final report.
• March 1989: the report is released; Rajiv Gandhi says police have cleared him.
• 1990: elected to the Rajya Sabha, later Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, 1995 to 1996 (The Tribune).

Remembered for: his closeness to Indira Gandhi. The Tribune says he reportedly wielded immense clout. The commission's suspicion and the police clearance are both on the record, and Dhawan said he knew nothing of any plot.