On Christmas Day 1978, Sonia Gandhi delivered lunch to Indira Gandhi at Tihar Jail. She also brought meals for three female guards and a young foreign inmate.
Sonia Gandhi recounts these daily prison visits in her new memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. Her mother-in-law requested extra food for the guards and an associate of serial killer Charles Sobhraj.
A Custom Christmas Menu
Indira Gandhi pitied the young prisoner and learned she did not eat ham. Consequently, Sonia Gandhi quickly altered the Christmas menu and prepared roast chicken instead.
Although Indira Gandhi urged her to celebrate at home with Rajiv and their children, Sonia insisted on delivering the meal personally. Authorities released Indira Gandhi the very next day.
Identifying Sobhraj’s Accomplice
Sonia Gandhi remembers the foreign inmate as an Australian girl. However, historical records suggest the woman was likely Canadian Marie-Andree Leclerc, Sobhraj’s girlfriend, who frequently used stolen Australian passports.
The Arrest and Harsh Conditions
On December 19, 1978, the Janata Party-led Lok Sabha expelled Indira Gandhi for breach of privilege regarding the Maruti car project. Officials incarcerated her in Tihar Jail for one week.
Sonia Gandhi recalls weeping upon seeing her mother-in-law inside a freezing, bare cell. Rough blankets covered thick iron bars, and a high concrete block served as her bed.
Secret Notes and Family Visits
Sonia Gandhi eventually gained permission to bring young Rahul and Priyanka to visit their grandmother. Indira Gandhi hugged the children joyfully and hid secret notes inside the tiffin basket.
In one playful note, the former prime minister answered a supporter’s telegram by counting her cell’s barriers: 193 iron bars and 11 padlocks. She later returned to power in 1980.
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