Police ‘miserably failed’ to prevent Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, said the trial court in 1949

Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948 was independent India’s first high profile criminal case. A look into the trial court verdict delivered in the case on February 10, 1949 throws up interesting historical facts on how the presiding judge had lamented about the police having “miserably failed” to prevent the murder of the father of the nation despite being provided with specific inputs.

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“I may bring to the notice of the Central Government, the slackness of the police in investigation of the case during the period between January 20, 1948 (when the first assassination attempt failed) and January 30, 1948,” wrote Special Judge Atma Charan in his verdict and highlighted that the then Home Minister Morarji Desai was made aware of the conspiracy immediately after the first attempt.

The judge pointed out that the conspirators had gone to Birla House in Delhi, where Mahatma Gandhi was residing, on January 20, 2023 in order to assassinate him by exploding a guncotton slab on the campus and also by throwing a hand grenade. As per plan, Punjabi refugee Madanlal K. Pahwa was supposed to explode the guncotton slub near the back compound wall of the Birla House to distract the gathering.

When the attention of the crowd during Mahatma Gandhi’s prayer meeting in the open grounds gets diverted towards the blast, Digambar R. Badge (an illegal arms dealer who later turned into an approver in the case and was granted pardon) was supposed to fire at Mahatma Gandhi with a revolver and also hurl a hand grenade through the trelliswork of a room located close to the prayer platform.

However, at the eleventh hour, Badge got scared to enter the room. He feared that he might get caught inside and would not be able to escape after committing the crime. In the meantime, Pahwa ignited the guncotton slab and a large number of people caught hold of him immediately after the blast. The other conspirators, including Nathuram V. Godse, Narayan D. Apte and Badge, took to their heels and fled from the scene.

Intelligence branch alerted

J.C. Jain, a professor of Ardhamagadhi and Hindi at the Ruia College in Bombay read a news report regarding the Delhi Birla House explosion and sought an appointment with the Premier B.G. Kher at the secretariat on January 21, 1948. The Home Minister was also present in the meeting when Jain disclosed that he had certain crucial information related to a plot being hatched to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi.

The professor said that he had rendered monetary assistance to the refugee Pahwa in the past and that the latter had told him, around the first week of January, about the plan being hatched by his friends to take the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Jain said that he did not report the matter earlier to the authorities because he did not take it seriously and thought that it was just the anguish of a refugee.

The professor also named Vishnu R. Karkare who was one of the conspirators in the crime. The Home Minister summoned J.D. Nagarvala of the Intelligence Branch to the Bombay Central Railway Station and informed about what he had learned from Jain without giving out the latter’s name. The Minister also instructed the officer to find out the individuals involved in the plot and to arrest Karkare.

After recording the evidence adduced by the Home Minister, who was arrayed as Prosecution Witness No. 78, during the course of trial and also that of other witnesses including the Bombay based professor, the special judge said, apart from the statement of Jain, the Delhi police had obtained a detailed statement from Pahwa too who was in custody pursuant to his arrest on January 20, 1948.

“The Delhi police and Bombay police had contacted each other soon after these two statements had been made. Yet, the police miserably failed to derive any advantage from these two statements. Had the slightest keenness been shown in the investigation of the case at that stage the tragedy probably could have been averted,” the special judge wrote after the completion of the trial held at Red Fort.

He pointed out that even after the botched attempt on January 20, 1948; the conspirators Nathuram V. Godse (Editor of Hindu Rashtra), his brother Gopal V. Godse, the brain behind the entire crime Narayan D. Apte (Director of Hindu Rashtra Prakashan Limited) and others continued the conspiracy and killed Mahatma Gandhi at the same Birla House in Delhi on January 30, 1948.

Godse flew Air India to kill Gandhi

According to the prosecution, Nathuram Godse as well as Apte had flown by Air India from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Delhi for the failed assassination attempt on January 20, 1948 and also for the assassination on January 30, 1948. The police had submitted air tickets and reservations slips to prove that Apte had gone to the Air India office on January 15, 1948 to book two tickets for the travel on January 17, 1948.

The police had accused the duo of having booked the tickets under the assumed names D.N. Karmarkar and S. Marahte. However, denying the accusation, Apte claimed that he had actually purchased the two tickets from another customer who had come to the Air India office on January 15, 1948 to cancel the two tickets booked for January 17, 1948 and therefore, the charge of having used assumed names was wrong.

Not finding any reason to accept the defence, the trial judge wrote: “The address of the two passengers as given in the reservation slip is ‘Room No.6 Sea Green Hotel.’ According to his (Apte) own statement, he along with Nathuram V. Godse was putting up at the time at the Sea Green Hotel. There is thus no reason to suppose that the two seats had not been booked under assumed names.”

After the failed attempt on January 20, 1948; the duo returned to Bombay and flew to Delhi again by Air India on January 27, 1948. This time their assumed names for booking the tickets were D. Narayan and N. Vinayakrao. Pursuant to their flight to Delhi, they went to Gwalior to meet medical practitioner Dattatraya S. Parchure who helped them procure automatic pistol no. 606824 that eventually was used to kill Mahatma Gandhi.

Godse didn’t remember the number of shots he fired

In his statement, before the trial court, regarding the shooting incident, Nathuram Godse had said: “Yes, it is a fact that I did fire shots at Mahatma Gandhi with the pistol (Exhibit 39). The story as told by the various eye witnesses up to the stage when Mahatma Gandhi stepped up the prayer ground is correct. I jumped out and came in front of Mahatma Gandhi. My idea was to shoot at him twice at point blank range so that none else might get injured.”

He went on to state: “I bowed to him with the pistol between my two palms. I had removed the safety catch when I had taken out the pistol from inside my bush coat pocket. I think I fired twice. I, however, learnt that I had fired thrice. After I had fired the shots, there was a lull throughout for about a minute. I had also got excited. I then shouted ‘Police, police. Come.’ Amarnath then came and caught hold of me from behind.”

Recalling the thrashings he received, Godse said: “Soon thereafter, a constable also caught hold of me. Some member of the public at the time removed away the pistol from my hand. A large number of persons thereafter caught hold of me… It was a gentleman who had struck me on the back of my head with his stick. When he had given me two to three blows with his stick, then blood began coming out of my head.”

Stating that he had decided to give in, the assassin said: “I told him that I was not going to offer resistance even if he happened to break my skull. I had already done what I wanted to do. The police tried to take me away from the crowd. I then saw the person who had my pistol in his hand… I told him to keep the safety catch in position otherwise he might kill himself or injure someone in the crowd.”

After recording this statement, the trial court said: “There is thus no denying the fact that Nathuram V Godse did intentionally fire three shots with an automatic pistol at point blank range in quick succession at Mahatma Gandhi and caused his death thereby.” Though Godse claimed that it was an individual act and there was no conspiracy, the judge disbelieved his claim on the strength of strong evidence against them.

Savarkar acquitted

On completion of investigation, the prosecution had filed a charge sheet in the case against eight individuals (Nathuram V. Godse, Narayan D. Apte, Vishnu R. Karkare, Madanlal K. Pahwa, Shankar Kistayya, Gopal V. Godse, Vinayak D. Savarkar and Dattatraya S. Parchure) and declared three more (Gangadhar S. Dandwate, Gangadhar Jadhav and Suryadeo Sharma) as absconding accused on May 27, 1948.

However, the trial court acquitted Savarkar alone from all charges since there was no corroborative evidence against him but for the statement of the approver linking him with the crime. “It would thus be unsafe to base any conclusions on the approver’s story given above as against Vinayak D. Savarkar… He is found not guilty of the offences as specified in the charge and is acquitted and be released forthwith unless required otherwise,” the judge ordered.