After Gopal had left, Karkare stayed in the canteen till he was certain that the police had left with Madanlal. He went across to the Frontier Hindu Hotel, checked out, and went to a waiting room at the station, venturing out only in the afternoon. In his statement to the police, Karkare said that he parted with Gopal on the evening of the 20th. He claimed he spent that night on the footpath outside Birla dharamshala. He made his way to the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan to see if he could muster up some help for Madanlal, but nobody was willing. A dejected Karkare decided to go to Madanlal's relatives. He tried to get help for the next two days, without success.
That evening two officers from the Delhi police, Deputy Superintendent Jaswant Singh and Inspector Balkishen, were sent by air to Bombay. The director of the Intelligence Bureau and inspector general of police T.G. Sanjevi was given the charge of investigating the bomb attack case. It was on his orders that the two officers were being sent to Bombay. Their orders were to immediately brief J.D. Nagarvala, the deputy commissioner of police in Bombay, about Madanlal's confession, and then proceed to Poona and hand over a copy of Madanlal's confession to the deputy assistant inspector-general of police, CID, Raosaheb Gurtu. Madanlal's statement, as was the practice those days in North India, was written in Urdu. No senior policeman in Bombay could read Urdu, but no translations were furnished by the Delhi police.
In Bombay, Jain saw the headlines of the morning newspaper and when he read who had exploded the bomb he was shocked. There were no reports of the arrest of the other members of Madanlal's gang, but Pahwa had introduced 'Karkare Seth' to him as the financier of the plot to 'overpower' Gandhi. After seeing the reports in the papers, Jain felt that he should report Pahwa's conversation, but was apprehensive as he lived in Shivaji Park, a Hindu Mahasabha stronghold. He contacted the then chief minister of Bombay, B.G. Kher, but as he was going out of town, he was asked to meet the Home minister, Morarji Desai. At 4 pm that evening Jain reported the conversation that Madanlal had had with him on the 11th and 14th of January to Morarji Desai. He told him about Karkare Seth, and Madanlal's meeting with Savarkar. He requested Desai not to divulge his identity as he feared for his life. Inexplicably, Desai did not ask any police officer to be present while Jain made his statement, nor did he record or make notes of the statement.
After Jain left his chambers, Desai sent for the deputy commissioner of police, Jamshed Dorabjee Nagarvala, popularly known as 'Jimmy', who was in charge of the Intelligence Branch. He was busy, so Desai requested a meeting at the Bombay Central railway station that evening, as he was going to Ahmedabad by the Gujarat Mail at 8.30 pm.
At Bombay Central, Desai told Jimmy Nagarvala all that Jain had told him without revealing the professor's identity, and asked him to investigate the matter. Desai asked Nagarvala to arrest Karkare and to put a watch on Savarkar. Desai mentioned that he was meeting Patel at Ahmedabad and would give him all the information.
One of the first things Jimmy Nagarvala did was to post two plainclothes policemen to stake out Savarkar Sadan at Shivaji Park. Nagarvala was sure that, if there was a larger conspiracy, then Savarkar's involvement could not be discounted and sooner or later the gang members would congregate there. Nagarvala also alerted his men to get him information about any plots by the Savarkarites.
Nathuram and Apte reached Kanpur that morning and checked into a retiring room at the station. Nathuram signed the register using his real name. They glanced through the papers and were relieved to see that the police were not looking for any accomplices. They took the 11.30 am Lucknow-Jhansi Mail to Jhansi, from where they got on to the Delhi-Bombay Punjab Mail to Bombay.
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House Gandhi had returned to his regular routine. It seemed that he was keen to dispense with all his pending work before he took up his next task. The recovery of the thousands of abducted women in both dominions, the persecution of the Hindus in Sind, and the evacuation of those who wanted to cross the border into India, were some of the issues that demanded his attention. The plight of the non-Muslim refugees in Bhanwalpur state in Pakistan, waiting to be evacuated to India, was worrying. Gandhi decided to send two emissaries. He deputed Leslie Cross of the Friends Service Unit and his personal physician Dr. Nayyar to leave for Bhanwalpur at the very earliest.
That evening Gandhi walked to the prayer meeting, which was held as per schedule at the same spot. The damaged wall had been repaired. He had rejected Patel's suggestion of deputing more police and that every person coming to Birla House should be frisked. 'My faith does not allow me to place myself under any kind of human protection at prayer time,' he said; it would reduce his profession of faith to a mockery.
Early that morning, at the police headquarters in Bombay, the two officers from Delhi met Nagarvala and gave him a copy of Pahwa's confession. Nagarvala brushed them off, asking them not to interfere with the investigations.
Gopal Godse reached Bombay in the early afternoon. He alighted at Dadar Station and waited on the platform to board a train to Poona. He was eager to see his wife Sindhu and his daughters. Suddenly a police constable walked up to him and asked to search his luggage. Gopal was scared, thinking he would now be caught as he was carrying two revolvers and a hand grenade in his shoulder bag. Hesitatingly, he unrolled his bedding. After some probing, the constable left without checking Gopal's shoulder bag.
On reaching home at six, the first thing he decided to do was to get rid of all the incriminating evidence that could link him to the attack on Gandhi.
That evening Gopal went to a friend, Pandurang Godbole's house in Sadashiv Peth. He gave Godbole a parcel containing the .38 Webley Scott revolver. He was going to ask Badge to exchange the useless .32 for the .22 that Nathuram had originally given him.
FRIDAY, 23 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House that morning, Gandhi wrote a letter to his grandson, Dr. Kanti Gandhi: 'The fast seems to have done some harm to my body. To that extent I may be said to be deficient in regard to Rama Nama. That faith requires ceaseless practice, which I have not been able to manage. If God wants my faith to bear fruit, He will grant it. Even if I do not get that experience in this life, I think my faith will remain unshaken'. To an ashram associate he wrote: 'My giving up the fast has not lessened my responsibility. It has added to it. It will count for something if I show some achievement in Delhi. On the 20th I might have died. But Rama saved me because he had to take some more work from me. If I can die with a smile on my lips, it will be a great mercy .... This morning I had a long frank talk with Manu. I am a servant of Rama. I shall work as long as He commands me to work. I shall go when He commands me to go. I am prepared for both. My only prayer is that I may realise non-violence and make others to realise it. You should join me in that prayer'.
Gandhi attended the first session of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) constituted by Dr. Prasad, the Congress president. The members congratulated Gandhi on his achieving peace, and expressed relief that he had escaped unscathed from the bomb attack. That day was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary. The two had never seen eye to eye. Netaji had relinquished the post of Congress president as Gandhi was opposed to it and gone on to form the Forward Bloc. That evening Gandhi paid glowing tributes to Netaji, 'Subhas Babu was a votary of violence, while I am a devotee of ahimsa. But what does that matter? The most important thing is that we should learn from other people's virtues. Subhas was a great patriot. He laid down his life for the country. The soldiers of his Indian National Army included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and others. He had no use for parochialism and caste distinctions. In his eyes, all were Indians and servants of India. Let us, in remembering Subhas, think of his great virtues.'
The Punjab Mail carrying Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte reached Bombay's Victoria Terminus at noon. They took a taxi to Sandhurst Bridge near the Harkisondas Hospital in central Bombay. They planned to stay at the Arya Pathik Ashram, a cheap hotel previously patronised by Apte and Manorama Salvi. The ma
nager of the hotel, Gaya Prasad Dube, regarded Apte as a favoured customer. Apte always demanded and paid for a single room for himself, which was a luxury. This time, unfortunately, the two-bed rooms were not available. All Dube could do was give them two beds in a dormitory, to be shared with six other lodgers. Apte signed under his real name and wrote 'Friend' as was his practice when he stayed with Manorama.
Leaving their luggage at the hotel, Apte called Manorama. She was both, surprised and relieved to hear from him. After talking to Manorama, Apte and Nathuram rushed to Thana, a district headquarters town towards the north-east of Bombay, to G.M. Joshi's house. Both Karkare and Apte knew him; before leaving for Delhi all of them had met at the Shivaji Printing Press owned by Joshi and he had also given the gang some funds. The two wanted to find out whether Joshi had heard from Karkare. When Joshi replied in the negative, they asked about Karkare at a couple of other places, but drew a blank everywhere.
Although Nathuram had declared that their new plan would be a one-man effort and they would not be regrouping, the two seemed desperate to reassemble the gang. They sent a message to Gopal, informing him they were in Bombay and Manorama knew their whereabouts.
Karkare had, in fact, left Delhi. To escape detection by police, he jumped off the train at Mathura and took a bus to Agra.
At the police headquarters in Bombay, the two officers from Delhi police were ushered in to Nagarvala's office. He ordered them both to immediately leave for Delhi and not waste time in Bombay. Surprisingly, they chose not to comply with the orders given to them in Delhi and soon after boarded a train and were back in Delhi after wasting two days in Bombay.
SATURDAY, 24 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House, even as he was planning ahead for varied activities in the coming month of February, Gandhi sensed a great doubt somewhere deep inside him. In a letter to his nephew and Manu's father Jaisukhlal Gandhi, he wrote: 'You should come to Sevagram in February. It is possible I may have to go to Wardha for Jamnalal's* death anniversary on 11 February. But it is not certain. It does not seem likely that I can get away from Delhi. I am dictating this letter immediately after prayer. There is a heap of letters to be attended to. If God wills, we shall be meeting in a few days, and then we can talk about the rest'.
In another letter he wrote: 'I am a servant of Rama. I will do His work as long as He wills. I shall have won in my mission, if I am granted a death in which I can demonstrate the strength of truth and non-violence. If I have been sincere in their pursuit, and acted with God as my witness, I shall certainly be granted that kind of death. I have expressed my wish at prayer that, should someone kill me, I should have no anger in my heart against the killer, and that I should die with Rama nama on my lips.'
Gandhi had sent Dr. Nayyar to Bhanwalpur and Lahore as his personal representative, to meet Ghazanafar Ali Khan, Pakistan's minister for refugee rehabilitation, and take steps to evolve a viable policy to help abducted women and other destitutes find suitable homes. Dr. Nayyar sent Gandhi a message from Lahore saying she had had useful talks. In the evening, a deputation of Karnataka Congress leaders called on him. Their discussion centred on forming a Karnataka province based on language. Gandhi was not averse to the idea, given his zeal for promoting and giving more importance to India's languages.
At the Delhi Police Headquarters, Jaswant Singh and Balkishen filed the report of their trip to Bombay. They hadn't been able to arrest 'Karkare Seth', nor had they established the identity of the editor of Hindu Rashtra, they said, and complained to their superiors about the cavalier treatment they received in Bombay.
Meanwhile, the person the Delhi police was after, Karkare, boarded a train from Agra, continuing his convoluted journey back to Bombay. During the night he changed trains at Itarsi, in the Central Province, now Madhya Pradesh, and then at Kalyan, an industrial town north-east of Bombay.
In Bombay, Dube, the manager of the Arya Pathik Ashram, finally managed to get a two-bed room for Apte. A delighted Apte accepted. Nathuram had gone to the Elphinstone Annexe Hotel on Carnac Road, close to the Victoria Terminus and next door to the Bombay police commissioner's office and police headquarters; there he booked another room in the name of 'N. Vinayakrau and friend'. Apte returned to his hotel room at noon with Manorama. Manorama stayed on the 24th and spent the night there too. Nathuram stayed away and watched a couple of films.
SUNDAY, 25 JANUARY 1948
At the Birla House, planning his movement to uplift villages and rid India of the caste system, Gandhi wrote to Prabhudayal Vidyarthi, who had lived in Sevagram since he was fourteen and was now a village worker. He said he expected several difficulties in the tasks of rural reconstruction. But the workers committed to them had to be resolute, hardy, and also tactful bringers about of change. That afternoon, he attended the second session of the CWC. He supported the proposal for provinces to be created on the basis of India's major languages, but insisted that thereafter their citizens should all live together with love and cooperation.
That evening at the prayer meeting Gandhi said, 'I will not ask how many Muslims there are at this meeting. I shall only ask everyone to treat them as their brothers. More and more people have been coming to the prayers. If each one of them makes it a point to bring a Muslim friend, it will be a great thing. The urs at the shrine of Khwaja Syed Qutub-ud-Din Bakhtiar in Mehrauli will start from tomorrow. Earlier this year, the shrine was partially demolished. Now it has been repaired, and the urs will take place as usual. Formerly, a large number of Muslims and an equal number of Hindus used to go there. The Hindus should go there with peace and reverence in their hearts.'
Referring to his programme for the month of February, Gandhi said, 'I shall leave for Wardha on 2 February with Rajendra Babu. But I shall try to return to Delhi as soon as I can. The report that I shall be staying in Wardha for a month is not correct. I shall go only if you bless me and assure me you will not start fighting as soon as I leave! Later, I want to visit Pakistan also, if that government allows it.'
At the police headquarters in Delhi that morning, the two police officers' reports reached Sanjevi's desk. He did not, however, want to take up his subordinates' complaints with the Bombay police. He believed that the conspirators were from the Bombay province and thus he needed their cooperation. U.H. Rana, the deputy inspector-general of CID, Bombay was in Delhi. Sanjevi briefed him about the case and handed over a copy of Madanlal's confession to him, this time with the English translation. He ordered Rana to hand it over to the Bombay police and get them working to arrest the people mentioned in the confession.
Rana left for Bombay that day, and despite the immediacy of the mission, chose to travel a route that made the journey so long, it was ultimately rendered unnecessary. Rana decided to go to Bombay by train and not by air as he had a fear of flying.
At Thana, Karkare went straight to Joshi's house, Shanta Sadan, in the Navpada Enclave, and called up to him from the street, as was the practice those days. Some Hindu homes were very particular about the womenfolk not meeting strangers and casual acquaintances. When a guest visited, they would hail the family from the street or the compound and thus give the women of the house time to retire to the inner rooms. Joshi told Karkare that Apte and Godse had come looking for him two days back but had left without giving any information about their whereabouts. Karkare then sent a telegram to Apte in Poona, but being a cautious man, he did not send it from Thana. In case the police was on a watch-out, they would intercept the telegram, trace it to Thana and then to the Joshi household. So Joshi's eighteen-year-old son, Vasant, was sent to the Central Telegraph Office, in the Fort area of Bombay, next to Flora Fountain. It was a twenty-mile journey one way. As it was a Sunday, only express telegrams were booked. The telegram said: Apte, Anandashram, Poona. Both come immediately, Vyas'. 'Vyas' is another way of spelling 'Bias' which was Karkare's assigned code name in the gang.
In Poona, Gopal had been a regular visitor to Apte's house, enquiring about him from his wife Champatai. When
he received the message from Nathuram, that he and Apte were in Bombay, Gopal duly informed Champatai.
That morning Champatai had received a telegram addressed to her husband from somebody called Vyas. She could not make any sense of it and so sent it to Gopal, who recognised the sender. He now had to forward this information to Nathuram in Bombay. Gopal rushed to the station and boarded the first train leaving for Bombay. He had to reach Bombay, find his brother, give him the message and get back to Poona by the next morning as his leave was getting over and he had to report for work at the ammunitions depot. He took the .32 revolver with him. He had tried to give it to Badge, but the shooter had become abusive and so Gopal had kept the gun with him. Now he wanted to give it back to his brother, who may some use for it. Gopal's fear of arrest had lessened with the passing of days. He got off at Thana and from a pay phone, called the Northcote Police Hospital and left a message for Manorama, requesting her to inform Apte that Vyas had reached Thana. Then he went to Joshi's house and met Karkare.
At the Elphinstone Hotel, Apte and Godse had decided to do some fund-raising. They visited a wealthy supporter of extremist Hindu activity, Paranjape, a banker and co-owner of the Silver Bank Company. They asked him for a loan of Rs. 25,000 for their paper. Paranjape promised to give them Rs. 10,000 if they came to his office the next day. Knowing that they would get less then what they asked for, Apte had asked for an inflated amount, hoping to get at least Rs. 5,000. What Paranjape had promised was a windfall. The duo rushed to the Air India office in Fort and booked two tickets to Delhi on the morning flight for Tuesday the 27th. The tickets were booked under the assumed names of 'D. Narayanrau' for Apte and 'N. Vinayakarau' for Nathuram, and the address of the Sea Green South Hotel on Marine Drive was given.
Lets Kill Gandhi Page 13