By Appu Esthose Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju
On January 30, 1948, M.K. Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in the Birla House compound in Delhi. Today is 74 years since that day. In this extract from their book The Murderer, the Monarch and the Fakir: A New Investigation of Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination, Appu Esthose Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju talk about the investigation that followed.
As mentioned in an earlier chapter, post Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination DSP Jaswant Singh interrogated Godse for three consecutive days to confirm Savarkar’s role. However, Godse did not crack, except for revealing that he came to Delhi with Apte. Singh quizzed Godse for the first time on the afternoon of 1 February 1948 jointly with Kartar Singh and Mehta Bal Krishna, an inspector in the CID office. On 2 February, the interrogation started at 10 a.m. and continued till 7 p.m. On the third day, the interrogation started at around 1 p.m. So far, Godse was sticking to his version that he had masterminded the assassination. Jaswant Singh noted, as mentioned earlier, with frustration, ‘I continued interrogating Godse accused at Parliamentary street police Station, but nothing useful was revealed.’
Remember, Godse went to Birla House prepared to kill Gandhi and be killed either by the crowd or the state. Nothing could reduce his determination to assassinate a man who, in his mind, was anti-national. But it is a little surprising that he was trying to save his friends and co-conspirators by pleading guilty. Perhaps all the actors did not anticipate so much information to come on record.
While the police and the nation were still gasping at the assassination of Gandhi, the Hindu Mahasabha was sheltering the conspirators. On 31 January 1948 at 7.22 p.m., V.G. Deshpande, secretary, Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan, received a telegram: ‘Arriving Delhi arrange for defence.’
The messenger was Apte. DSP Singh was passed on this intel by the Bombay police and it was verified by the Calcutta police from the Central Telegraph Office. The Hindu Mahasabha was emerging as the epicentre of this assassination.
Post Gandhi’s assassination, the intelligence network started picking up leads. One such report dated 2 March 1948 gave a useful tip to the probe team about Ram Singh, a servant at the Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan who was said to be a trusted aide of Ashutosh Lahiri, the All India secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha. Ram Singh was interrogated and helped the police identify the accused. Lahiri was one of the first to be arrested for the murder. Ram Singh had been living with Madanlal in the same room in Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan. The intelligence was quite specific: ‘Kirkree is believed to have sent a message or a letter to Ashutosh Lahiri from Cawnpore to arrange for Madan Lal’s defence [sic]. The letter in question is said to have since been destroyed.’
On 26 January 1948, Lahiri was in Bombay to meet Savarkar. They met again the next day at 10.30 a.m. Lahiri claimed that their meeting was strictly about two topics related to the Hindu Mahasabha: the reorientation policy of the sabha and the appointment of an acting president in case Savarkar was elected as the president.
It was not just Lahiri who had come to meet Savarkar. In the preceding days Apte and Godse had also visited Savarkar after the failed assassination attempt on 20 January.
The case diary of J.D. Nagarwala noted the following findings: ‘In the course of interrogation of accused N.V Godse is transpired that on 23.1.48 he had taken food in the colony restaurant at Dadar after meeting Sawarkar.’ [sic]
This was corroborated by the owner of the restaurant.
A statement of Sitaram Anantrao Shate, proprietor of the Colony restaurant, Shivaji Park, Dadar was recorded on 26.2.48. He states that most of the visitors to Savarkar have their meals in his hotel and sometimes the money was paid by Damle, V.D Sawarkar’s secretary. He says that he knows Apte and Nathuram Godse, and between 23rd and 25th Jan’48 Nathuram had visited his hotel for food and at that time he was found particularly in a confused state of mind. [sic]
As mentioned in the chapter ‘The August Conspiracy’, an intelligence report from the Gwalior Crime Investigation Department dated 30 January was quoted as saying that Godse was sent to Parchure, who supplied the Beretta gun to kill Gandhi, by Savarkar.
The investigation by the Bombay Police under Nagarwala conclusively provided evidence of Savarkar’s involvement in the conspiracy. The fact that Godse and Apte had been in touch with Savarkar before and after the earlier attempt and ahead of the actual assassination was proved beyond doubt.
The case diary of 1 February 1948 contained crucial evidence which never saw the light of the day until the late 1960s, well after Savarkar was dead. It said: ‘Minute enquiries were started with Gajanan Vishnu Damle, Appa Ramachandra Kasar, Balraj Mehta, Laxman Ganesh Chatte, and Avtar Singh, Harman Singh Bedi who were brought to the office of interrogation.’9 [sic]
The diary continued:
During the course of separate interrogation of the first two named persons it was learnt that Nathuram Vinayak Godse, accompanied by Narayan Dattatraya Apte, had seen Sawarkar twice or thrice before the bomb explosion on 20. 1.1948.[sic]
Both the persons denied, however, any personal knowledge. It was also learnt from these persons that about a week or so before the explosion of the 20th Jan Karkare from Ahmednagar who is an active Hindu Mahasabhaite and who had gone to Noakhali to oppose the tour of Gandhiji and to create agitation against Gandhiji’s peace mission in Noakhali, had also come to see Sawarkar. [sic]
Karkare was accompanied by a young Punjabi aged about 23/25, whose name they learnt later on to be Madan Lal and who was involved in the bomb explosion of the 20th Jan. Karkare and Madan Lal had about an hour’s talk with Sawarkar. Both the persons are not prepared to depose as to what took place at the Sawarkar’s meeting. These two persons also stated that one Badge, owner of Maharashtra Shastra Bhandar of Poona, also used to come to see Sawarkar. Apte and Godse had free access to see Sawarkar, without previous appointment or having to wait downstairs, but others had to wait till Sawarkar agreed to see them. [sic]
Savarkar denied any such meetings. He stuck to his stand during the trial. It was based on this ‘inconclusive’ evidence that the trial court acquitted him. The prosecution never contradicted Savarkar with Damle’s and Apparao’s statements during the trial. These facts remained undisclosed to the public until the Kapur Commission reports.
But Nagarwala had no doubts in his mind.
‘From the story related by these two persons it appears that it was at these meetings of Sawarkar with these two individuals that the plan to do away with Mahatmaji was finalized [sic],’ Nagarwala concluded in his case diary of 1 February 1948.
This story first appeared on thewire.in