LONDON, Nov 8: Leading Indian politician Maneka Gandhi on Thursday won a public apology and damages over allegations she was involved in a cover-up of her late husband Sanjay’s alleged involvement in a 1976 murder.

The announcement in the High Court came after lawyers for both sides agreed earlier on the settlement, which included a public apology to be read out in court.

Gandhi’s lawyer Edward Garnier told the High Court in London that the allegations were made in a biography of Gandhi’s mother-in-law — “Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi” — written by Katherine Frank and published by Harper Collins.

Garnier told Justice Charles Gray that the book caused Gandhi, who is minister for culture and animal welfare, “grave offence”.

It alleged she was involved in a cover-up over her husband’s involvement in the murder of an Indian underworld figure called Sunderlal. Garnier said the book alleged she and her husband had asked another man to accept responsibility for the killing.

However, both the author and the publishers now accepted that the allegations were “wholly false and totally without foundation and that they must have been misled by their source”.

He said that in addition to payment of substantial but undisclosed damages and legal costs, the offending passages would be withdrawn from future editions of the book.

Counsel for Frank and her publishers, Harvey Starte, told the judge it was now accepted that the allegations were “utterly false” and should not have been included in the biography.

He added: “The defendants believed the information they relied on was correct, but they accept that will be of little comfort to the claimant who was, despite the defendants’ absence of malice towards her personally, grievously libelled and justifiably upset by the allegations against her and her late husband.”

Sanjay Gandhi was the younger son of Indira Gandhi and a grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru. Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980. —Reuters