Islamabad, June 10 (PTI): Pakistan has said L.K. Advani’s name does not figure in the FIR filed in 1947 in connection with a conspiracy to assassinate Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

A police file of 1947 containing an FIR relating to the attempt on Jinnah’s life does not include Advani’s name, a police official in Karachi was quoted as saying by a Pakistani weekly.

“The file was not in good shape but after looking at it, we have found that the name of Advani does not appear either in the statements of prosecution witnesses or in the list of accused who had absconded,” the official said.

The alleged FIR against Advani figured prominently in the media here ahead of his recent visit but the Pakistan foreign office clarified that the government was not aware of it. Advani also dismissed it as a “scurrilous” charge aimed at defaming him.

According to reports, the FIR in question was filed at Jamshed Quarters police station in Karachi on September 10, 1947, and named 19 Hindus for conspiring to kill Jinnah.

According to the FIR, the RSS had sent Rs 52,585 to the accused persons to help them execute the plan. Cheques of Rs 1,500, Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 were also deposited in banks in the names of the accused. The file revealed that weapons and explosives were purchased with the money sent by the then RSS president, the weekly said.

The plan came to the notice of the police following a bomb explosion in Shikarpuri Haveli on August 10, 1947, in which one person was killed and several injured.

A tribunal had found the accused guilty of conspiring to murder Jinnah, the file said. However, its last two pages were missing.