Karkare and Pahwa were waiting there for them. The gang was again in a fix. Both their guns were not working—how in heaven's name were they going to execute their plan? Putting up a brave front, Apte asked Karkare and Pahwa to proceed to Marina Hotel. Gopal carried the canvas bag with the explosives and the useless guns. The four got into a dark blue car and drove to the hotel. They found Nathuram stretched out on a cot in the hotel room. Badge and Kistayya then went down for lunch in the hotel's dining room.
When they returned they found Gopal repairing his gun. Badge and Pahwa went into the bathroom to fix the primers in the gun cotton slabs and detonators in the hand-grenades. Nathuram and Kistayya stood at the door and watched the preparations. He addressed Badge, saying in Marathi, 'Hi aamchi shevatchi sandhi ahe, kam yashasvi zalech pahije, sagla vayvasthit ahe hyachi kalji ghya.' 'This is our last chance; the work must succeed, you see to it that everything is properly prepared'. Gopal, by then, had cleaned and reassembled the revolver. On firing the unloaded revolver it seemed to function properly. To test the time it would take for the fuse to burn, they decided to cut a similiar length of fuse as the one they had fixed to the gun cotton slab, and light it. There was a loud crack and the room filled with smoke. A waiter, alarmed by the sound, came to investigate. Apte stopped him at the door and convinced him that a mattress had accidently caught fire while they were smoking on the bed and reassured him that there was no need for concern.
Apte then assigned duties to the various members. He suggested that Pahwa carry one gun cotton slab and one hand grenade. Kistayya would carry the other set. Nathuram, Karkare and Gopal would carry a hand grenade each. Badge would carry a revolver and the last hand grenade, and Apte a revolver. Badge intervened and said that one gun cotton slab was enough to create a commotion. He suggested that Pahwa should carry a gun cotton slab and a hand grenade. Pahwa would light the fuse and move away; he would have sixty seconds before the explosion. Gopal and Karkare should have one hand grenade each, while Kistayya and he would carry a revolver each and a hand grenade. Apte and Nathuram would oversee every detail and coordinate using hand signals. The shooter had come up with a perfectly workable plan. It would also conveniently keep Apte and Nathuram in the clear, in case anything went amiss.
Karkare suggested that as soon as Madanlal exploded the gun cotton slab all of them would shoot and throw hand grenades at Gandhi. Apte added that he would give a signal to Madanlal and Nathuram would signal Badge to synchronise the events. The others would mix into the crowd and wait for the moment to carry out their assigned tasks. They were sure that, in the ensuing commotion, they would escape from Birla House, and regroup at the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan before escaping back to Poona. To them their plan was so simple it felt like a school picnic.
Apte then gave each of them an assumed name to be used at Birla House that evening. Nathuram became 'Deshpande', Karkare was 'Bias', Apte 'Karmarkar', Kistayya 'Tukaram' and Badge 'Bandobhau'. It is not quite certain what names were assigned to Madanlal and Gopal. Nathuram decided to wear a dark blue half sleeved shirt and khaki shorts. Apte wore a dark blue jacket and trousers similar to the Indian Air Force uniform. Karkare wore a dhoti, Nehru shirt and a Gandhi topi. Madanlal wore a jacket given to him by Apte and a pair of trousers. Gopal dressed like Nathuram. Shankar wore a shirt, coat, dhoti and a cap. Badge wore a dhoti and a Nehru coat. In a vain attempt to hide his identity, Karkare painted on a false moustache, darkened his eyebrows and painted a large tilak on his forehead. He thought it was an ideal camouflage but, in fact, his getup attracted attention.
Apte then distributed arms to the gang members. Badge carried his revolver and hand grenade in a canvas bag; the others hid the items given to them on their person.
Karkare and Madanlal were the first two to leave the hotel for Birla House by tonga followed by Apte, Badge, Kistayya and Gopal. Nathuram complained of a headache and said he would follow after fifteen-twenty minutes. Badge disclosed the identity of their victim to Kistayya as they were leaving the hotel. 'We have to kill Gandhi according to the wishes of Tatayrao,' he said. Kistayya, used to following his master's orders, did not display any emotions.
The four of them hired a taxi driven by Surjit Singh, a Sikh driver, from near Regal Cinema. They first went to Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan, and while the taxi was kept waiting, the three went to their rooms. Gopal stored his trunk in the cupboard. The three then returned to the cab, which took them to the rear entrance of Birla House. A service lane opened into an open plot of land bordering the servants' quarters. As the taxi neared the rear gate, an off-duty watchman, Bhur Sinh, an ex-army sepoy, got up to stop it. When he saw that the car had pulled up by the kerb and stopped, he went back to where he was sitting with Choturam, a car cleaner with the Birla family. They both noticed that while four people stepped out of the car, the driver remained seated behind the wheel.
Two people from the compound walked up to the four and chatted for a few minutes. By this time Bhur Sinh left for his duty at the front gate. After a few minutes of chatting, the group broke up into ones and twos and entered the prayer grounds. A woman who lived in the servants' quarters of 9, Albuquerque Road, about a hundred feet away from the rear of Birla House, Sulochana Devi, also saw the gang arrive by car. Often her children, aged seven and four, came to the grounds to play. Sulochana had, as by habit, come to check on her children, when she saw the taxi driving up and the four men getting out.
Karkare had found out that the room they wanted to enter was the third in line from the gate. Karkare had befriended the servant to whom it was assigned the day before. He asked the servant, Choturam, to let one of his friends to use his room as he wanted to take some photographs of Gandhi. Even though the request seemed odd, Choturam was used to many photographers roaming around on the grounds of Birla House, particularly the French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson who took photographs from on top of walls, crouched under trees and even from the roof!
Karkare gave Choturam ten rupees; the money was incentive enough for the car cleaner who made sixty-five rupees a month. After all, it was only a matter of a few minutes, who would know? However, one thing did intrigue him; neither of the two people was carrying a camera. How were they going to take pictures? He asked Karkare this, who replied that his friend had a camera in the car.
After fixing the deal with Choturam, Karkare walked back to the car. Badge, Kistayya, Gopal and Nathuram had gathered around. Karkare told Badge that the room had been arranged. Badge saw several people sitting outside the servants' quarters and three men sitting just a few feet outside the door. He realised that it was going to be impossible for him to escape after firing from the room. It suddenly dawned on him that, post the asassination, Kistayya and he would be left holding smoking guns, while the rest of the gang would make good their escape. Badge was developing cold feet. He refused to enter the room saying that it was an ill omen, as Choturam had only one eye. He suggested that he would stand in front of the podium as close as he could get to where Gandhi sat and as soon as Madanlal exploded the gun cotton slab, he would fire at Gandhi and throw his hand grenade. The others realised that there was no way they were going to convince Badge to do otherwise. Badge had also realised that the trellis work grill had openings which were big enough for the hand grenade to slip through, but it was not possible to hurl it any distance from the window. As a result, the grenade would explode just beyond the window and instead of killing the victim, could just about end up killing the person who threw it.
Thus, the plan was changed at the last minute. By this time the prayer meeting had started. The public address system had been repaired, and Gandhi had begun addressing the gathering after the sarva dharma prarthana. The gang walked into the compound to take up their positions. Pahwa sauntered up to them and whispered that he had placed the gun cotton slab on the wall. Karkare asked Pahwa if he was ready. Madanlal replied in the affirmative and walked up towards the spot where he had placed the gun cotton. The spot was visible from the road behind and
Sulochana watched the young man walk up to the wall. She noticed the brick-like object kept on the wall, too.
In the meantime, a panic-stricken Badge caught hold of Kistayya and ordered him to hand over his revolver and grenade, and told him to do nothing unless he ordered him to act. Badge wrapped both the revolvers and the grenades in a towel he had picked up from Marina Hotel. He ran to the car and hid them under the backseat. The cab driver had walked up to the prayer ground. Badge walked back to the grounds with his hands in his coat pocket, pretending that he was carrying the gun and grenade in his pockets, and took up his position. None of the others knew what Badge had done.
Badge signalled to Apte that he was ready. Apte signalled to Pahwa, who ignited the fuse on the gun cotton slab with a matchstick and walked away. Sulochana saw him doing this. Madanlal signalled that the slab would explode at any instant.
Gandhi was addressing the gathering. Badge was standing four or five feet to Gandhi's right, Karkare and Kistayya stood a few feet to Badge's right. Suddenly a loud bang shattered the peace of the prayer meeting. There was a lot of smoke and dust; a large chunk of the wall had collapsed. A few people got up and rushed towards the spot where the explosion had occurred; the bomb had exploded about seventy-five feet from where Gandhi sat. The gang members waited for the next action to take place. Nothing happened. No shots were fired. Inexplicably, neither Karkare nor Gopal threw the grenades they were carrying.
Gandhi calmed the audience, 'If we panic like this over nothing, what shall be our plight if something really happens? ... Listen! Listen everybody, nothing has happened, listen to me. Sit down quietly.' The panic the gang had hoped for did not happen. Gandhi's words had calmed the crowd. The gang members were the only ones left standing, very conspicuously. But circumstances helped them avoid attention. They saw a few people who looked like the security staff of Birla House rushing towards the spot where the bomb had exploded. They saw a lady pointing towards Pahwa and the next moment he was grabbed and marched off towards the front gate of Birla House. Just outside the gate was a police post.
The gang panicked, sure that they would be caught any minute. Apte, Nathuram and Gopal rushed out off the rear gate and got into the cab shouting, 'Gadichalu karo, gadi chalao,jaldi,jaldi.'' 'Start the car, start the car. Drive, drive, fast, fast!' Several people saw the car drive off, as did Sulochana. A young boy noticed the number plate, and later gave the number to the police, but the number was wrong.
Karkare melted into the crowd and made good his escape. Badge caught hold of Kistayya and, avoiding the police constables, walked out of Birla House. They hired a tonga and proceeded towards Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan. Badge found Nathuram, Gopal, and Apte there in a state of panic. A blazing row ensued between Badge, Nathuram and Apte, each accusing the other of betraying the cause. Badge was livid that the others had all planned their getaway with no consideration for him. Although Nathuram and Apte had themselves not performed their assigned tasks, they blamed Badge for the failure of their plan. Apte told Badge that they did not require his services any more and that he should go back to Poona. Badge asked Shankar to dispose of the remaining explosive and the hand grenades. Shankar buried the cache in the woods behind the bhavan.
Gopal was told to leave for Poona immediately. Nathuram and Apte also decided to flee from Delhi. Karkare said he was going to stay in Delhi and try and get legal aid for Pahwa. All of them picked up their bags and hurriedly left. Apte and Nathuram went to Marina Hotel and checked out. Nathuram forgot to pick up the copy of the press release Ashutosh Lahiri had given him and his laundry. They rushed to the railway station.
Nathuram and Apte were devastated. Their well laid out plan had failed at the last minute. Like all their previous attempts to 'avenge' the atrocities on Hindus, this one had also proven to be a dud. Who would believe them now? How would they face Tatyarao? The Apte-Godse gang had once again proven to be losers.
On reaching the station, Badge and Kistayya bought tickets for Bombay on the 11 pm train and decided to stay put on the platform. Badge saw a couple of police constables walking along and, fearing the worst, they left and went to the Old Delhi railway station. A train was leaving for Bombay within the hour, which they boarded; from there they would head to Poona. Their part in the conspiracy to murder Mahatma Gandhi was over.
Nathuram and Apte left for Old Delhi station and travelled first class on an overnight train to Kanpur, and then on to Bombay. After their failed attempt, Apte noticed that Nathuram had been been very quiet. Apte knew that, at these times, it was best to leave him alone. According to Apte, some time during that night on the train, Nathuram suddenly woke him and said, 'We had decided to kill Gandhiji, we can't give up, we must fufil the promise we made to Tatyarao. We must achieve what we have planned. We will try again, but this time I am going to do it myself. No relying on others. Let's get an efficient gun. We will go back to Delhi and finish what we had planned to do. I will kill Gandhi myself.' Having said this Nathuram seemed to calm down. He then dozed off. Till that moment Apte had been the leader of the Apte-Godse gang, and Nathuram the faithful follower. At that moment though, the mantle of leadership changed hands. Henceforth, Nathuram was the leader. Apte would only look on.
After spending some time at a tea-shop, Karkare and Gopal went to Old Delhi and checked into a cheap hotel close to the railway station. The Frontier Hindu Hotel was mainly used by travellers staying overnight or people in transit. Gopal checked in as 'Rajagopalan' and Karkare as 'G.M. Joshi'. They stayed for one night. The next morning Gopal would leave by the Punjab Mail for Bombay and then go on to Poona.
At Birla House, immediately after the blast, Madanlal was caught by Bhur Sinh, Sgt. Ram Chander and Rattan Singh, a police constable. He was taken to the main gate and handed over to the police on duty there. K.N. Sawhney, a magistrate from Karnal and the district officer for refugees, who was attending the prayer meeting and was sitting three to four feet away from Gandhi when the blast took place, frisked Pahwa. He found a hand grenade in the right hand coat pocket Madanlal was wearing. It was defused, packed in a tin and sealed as one of the first pieces of evidence in what was then referred to as the 'bomb attack case' and would later become the Gandhi murder case. A little while after the bomb explosion, Nehru arrived. Gandhi called Sawhney and said, 'The boy was brave,' and compared him to Bhagat Singh, the revolutionary martyr. He added, 'They are children. They do not understand the situation now. When I am dead, then they will remember that what the old man said was true.'
Madanlal was taken to the Tughlaq Road Police Station. Initially it was assumed that he had acted alone,, a crazed refugee giving vent to his anger, but when the statements of Choturam and Sulochana were reported to the police, it was realised that a larger conspiracy was at work and that more than one person was involved.
Senior police officers rushed to the police station and Pahwa's interrogation began in earnest. Severe third degree methods were used to break Madanlal. Very soon he began confessing to the police. He named 'Karkara Seth' as the financier from Ahmednagar; he talked about the editor and publisher of Hindu Rashtra and Agranee from Poona and the editor's younger brother. He talked about a bearded weapons supplier and his servant, the details of the meeting at Marina Hotel and the entire plan. To the police, he repeated again and again, 'Woh phir ayega', 'He will come back again'.
Choturam and Sulochana had told the police about the people accompanying Pahwa and also gave their physical descriptions. A young boy gave them the car number DLH 9435, but it was found to be that of a bus. Late in the evening, Madanlal was taken to Marina Hotel. He led the police to Room 40 on the third floor of the hotel. The manager, C. Pacheko, was asked to open the room, which was then searched thoroughly. From one of the drawers of the dressing table, the police found the press release typed on the Hindu Mahasabha letterhead, with Ashutosh Lahiri disclaiming that any representative of the Hindu Mahasabha had signed the peace pledge. This should have alerted the police to the fact that Madanlal's accompl
ices were affiliated to the Hindu Mahasabha. They checked the hotel registers and found the occupants registered under false names. The police was also shown the laundry, some of which bore the initials 'N.VG.'. By the time the police finished their work it was past 11 pm. They proceeded to the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan, and searched Room 3, but did not find any evidence. Surprisingly, the police did not question either the staff or Ashutosh Lahiri. Back at the police station, Pahwa's interrogation continued through the night.
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House, the morning papers arrived, all of which featured the attempt on Gandhi's life. Many, including Hariram, a servant of G.D. Birla who attended on Gandhi, thought of him as God and wondered how any one would want to kill him.
During the evening prayers, Gandhi said, 'When I first heard the noise of the explosion. I thought it was the military carrying on their routine target practice. I did not realise till after the prayer that it was a bomb explosion and the bomb was meant for me.' He added that no one should harbour any resentment against the misguided youth who had thrown the bomb. He probably regarded Gandhi as an enemy of Hinduism and himself as an instrument for his removal. He could not ask the police to let off the culprit, but appealed to the police not to harass the young man; instead they should put him on the path of true action.
Early the next morning, the police took Madanlal to Old Delhi station from where the first two trains for Bombay would be departing within an hour of each other. Gopal—who was carrying the revolvers and hand grenades—was travelling by Punjab Mail and Karkare had come to see him off. Gopal had stashed the canvas bag with the arms and grenades under his seat in the third class compartment and, as there was some time before the train left, Karkare and he went to the railway canteen for breakfast. While they were having tea, they saw two policemen escort a handcuffed man with a blanket covering his face, with just his eyes peering out of slits, towards the canteen. Gopal immediately realised that the police had brought Madanlal to identify his accomplices. The blood drained from Gopal's face. 'Fortunately we were sitting in the far corner of the room and Madanlal did not see us,' Gopal recalled later. After marching up and down the platform the police walked off with Madanlal. Gopal heaved a sigh of relief; he rushed across the platform and boarded his train.
Lets Kill Gandhi Page 12