Madanlal Kashmirilal Pahwa worked at the Vassen Puspasen Fireworks, in the clandestine part of the factory manufacturing hand grenades. He had managed to escape barely a few minutes before the police raid. This was one of the reasons why he shifted to Ahmednagar. He was known to have carried off a large quantity of hand grenades with him.
16.33 On January 5, 1948, Raosaheb Patwardhan was addressing a meeting of the Congress to promote Hindu Muslim unity. Madanlal Pahwa arrived there with several Hindu Mahasabha workers and disrupted the meeting. According to his own statements during the Gandhi Murder trial he had caught hold of Raosaheb Patwardhan by the scruff of his neck and pushed him off the dais. The police reports of this are conflicting. According to S.I. Rane, Madanlal was hot tempered and was shouting slogans during the meeting and threatening to disrupt it. S.I. Balkundi stated that Madanlal and his companions created disturbances during the meeting but it was not correct that Madanlal had caught hold of Patwardhan and tried to attack him with a knife. Karkare also arrived there and he too started shouting and demanded that he and Madanlal should be allowed to speak. They tried to snatch away the mike from the rostrum. There after the meeting ended and when the audience had dispersed Madanlal and two others were arrested. Madanlal was kept in the lockup for some time and it was added that Madanlal use to create trouble all the time. Inspector Razak has added that both Madanlal and Karkare were brought to the Police Station and interrogated there but nothing useful was found. Madanlal on that occasion gave an undertaking not to take part in violent movements and he was let off. S.I. Balkundi deposed that on or about 6 January 1948 both Madanlal and Karkare disappeared from Ahmednagar and the police had no information where they had gone. S.I. Deshmukh was on the look out for the duo.
16.34 From the testimony of another witness Sub-Inspector L.N. Joshi (wit. 36) who was a Police Shorthand Reporter in Ahmednagar at the time, it appears that Madanlal had told him that he was going to Delhi to get married. This was on or about 10th January 1948.
16.36 On January 9, Inspector Razak advised Deshmukh to recommend the detention of both Madanlal and Karkare. S.I. Balkundi has stated that he recommended that Madanlal and Karkare be detained or externed.
16.37 On the report dated 8 January 1948 S.M. Dalai made an endorsement on January 11, and V.T. Dahejia on 12 January, and on the same day the Home minister Morarji Desai made an order that the persons mentioned in the report should be arrested and asked why the District Magistrate had not done so earlier.
Based on these facts, it is unbelievable that the policemen, the Home minister and the intelligence sleuths developed collective amnesia barely ten days later. When Prof. Jain informed Morarji Desai about Madanlal's confessions Desai could not recollect that he had signed detention orders for both Madanlal and Karkare of Ahmednagar barely ten days earlier.
16.41 The statement of the D.S.P. is that it did not strike him that Madanlal arrested at Delhi was the same person of Ahmednagar, but he had a faint recollection that Inspector Razak and S.I. Deshmukh had mentioned to him their suspicions about the identity of Madanlal. He told them that if that was so Madanlal must have been interrogated by the Delhi police who would find out everything. He told Deshmukh that if he wanted to go to Delhi he could do so and also told Razak that on his return to Poona he might as well tell the D.I.G., C.I.D., about this suspicion. Surprisingly enough, this gentleman did not think it expedient to telephone the D.I.G., C.I.D., about it nor did he inform the District Magistrate.
16.48 From the evidence it does appear that S.I. Balkundi was aware of the activities of Karkare and Madanlal. It also appears that he did suspect that Madanlal, the thrower of the bomb, was the same who had been operating in Ahmednagar, but for some reason he did not put his suspicion in writing and when he did so its utility was nil. It also appears that it was this witness who gave the particulars of Karkare to Poona C.I.D. and the photograph which was on the I.B. file was supplied by him.
16.50 Sub-Inspector Balkundi has stated that both Nathuram Godse and Apte used to come to Ahmednagar, they met Karkare and that he and his staff were watching the activities of both these persons although nothing emanated from this attempted intelligence. He also stated that he did not know if Karkare was sending any money to Godse and Apte. But he did know that Karkare was acting under the aegis of the Hindu Mahasabha. He further stated that when Madanlal and Karkare had left Ahmednagar in or about the second week of January 1948 as the place had become too hot for them, he thought that they might have gone to Kolhapur to stay with one Jere who was one of the paid workers of the Hindu Mahasabha. Now this is an important piece of evidence because in explanation dated 6 February 1948, also he has said that Karkare, so it was learnt, had gone to Kolhapur and was likely to take shelter with one Jere who had been working at Nagar (Ahmednagar) and that this information had been passed on to Inspector Razak who was working on it, but unfortunately this was on 7 February 1948.
16.51 After Madanlal had thrown the bomb, a letter addressed to Karkare was intercepted by Sub-Inspector Deshmukh. The writer of the letter could not be traced but in that letter it was written that a building had to be constructed in Bombay which was not possible without Karkare's help. Deshmukh took this letter to the D.S.P. and told him that it meant much more than what it appeared on the surface. In other words, it was in code. A copy of that letter was sent by the D.S.P. to the D.I.G., C.I.D. requesting that inquiries be made in Bombay. Deshmukh suggested to the D.S.P. that he (Deshmukh) should go to Bombay and Poona to find out about the whereabouts of Karkare and he left for Bombay on the pretext of purchasing a rectophoto machine, taking with him Sub-Inspector L.N. Joshi, because Joshi belonged to Poona and knew Apte and Godse. They went to the Agranee Press and made inquiries about Apte and Godse. This was on 29 January 1948. They were told that neither of them was in Poona. They then went to Apte's house under some pretext and asked Mrs. Champatai Apte about Apte's whereabouts. She told them Apte had gone to Gwalior. Joshi remained in Poona and Deshmukh went to Bombay to find out about Karkare's brother who was working in a mill in Dadar. He made inquiries about Karkare till about 9 pm when he learnt about the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.
16.52 An extract of the weekly diary of Deshmukh shows that he arrived at Poona on 28 January 1948 and made confidential inquiries till 11 pm. On 29 January he made more confidential inquiries and left Poona at 11.30 am, arrived at Bombay at 4 pm and went to Kurla and made inquiries there and then returned to Dadar. On the following day, i.e., 30 January, he moved about in Byculla, V.T., Kalbadevi, Dadar and Parel areas and made confidential inquiries. In this report it is not stated as to what confidential inquiries he was making or about whom, but one or two important matters emanate from this portion of the testimony of this witness.
(1) That Deshmukh had gone to Poona to look for Karkare; and if that was so it is difficult to imagine why he should have gone to the Agranee press and asked about him and then there he made inquiries about the whereabouts of Apte and Godse. It is still very surprising that Deshmukh and L.N. Joshi should have gone to Mrs. Apte to find out where her husband was and then this witness (Deshmukh) should have left for Bombay to look for Karkare. The whole thing does not fit in or appear to be very logical. If Karkare was being looked for then the witness should have stated that they went to find out about him from the Agranee press and from Mrs. Apte which he has not stated. And this connection between Karkare and the Agranee press or Mrs. Apte should appear somewhere at least in the evidence before the Commission.
(2) It shows that the witness was connecting Karkare with Apte and Godse. Why, it is not clear. He has nowhere stated in his evidence that according to his knowledge, Godse and Apte were associating with Karkare in Ahmednagar although Sub-Inspector Balkundi has stated that both Godse and Apte used to meet Karkare in Ahmednagar.
(3) If Karkare had taken shelter in Kolhapur with Jere, why was he being looked for in Poona? Besides, why was the police in Kolhapur not contacted about him?
(4) It is difficult to f
ind out any cogent reason for the inquiries made by these witnesses about Apte and Godse and not about Karkare. As has been said above, the events do not fit in properly and the picture seems to be out of focus as it were. Either these witnesses had information about the association of Karkare and Apte and Godse or they had not. If they had, one would have expected that they would have informed the authorities about this matter and when Karkare disappeared from Ahmednagar, they might have looked for him at places where Apte and Godse were or they had no knowledge about this association.
16.53 But this much is clear that Sub-Inspector L.N. Joshi did know Mrs. Apte. As a matter of fact, he has stated that he had helped Karkare to start his business and Karkare was helping Apte in his publication work. He has also stated that Deshmukh had (a) suspicion that Apte and party had gone to Delhi but he does not seem to have mentioned the fact to anybody nor informed the D.S.P. he has further stated that Mrs. Apte had no suspicion when he made inquiries about Apte because they had known each other for some time. This previous acquaintance of Joshi with Apte and Karkare can have a sinister meaning and yet may be more or less innocuous. Joshi has stated that he had no sympathy for the Hindu Mahasabha. L.N. Joshi has also stated that he accompanied Deshmukh because he knew friends of Karkare in Poona and went to the Agranee office for that reason. In the circumstances, it was, perhaps, not very wise for Deshmukh to have taken L.N. Joshi with him.
16.54 But the reason of his going to Poona and Bombay remains a mystery in view of his previous knowledge about the hiding of Karkare in Kolhapur with Jere.
The Kapur Commission has mildly hinted at a nexus between certain officers of the Ahmednagar police and Karkare and the Apte- Godse gang. After the murder, Pyarelal wrote that there was sympathy for the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS amongst several police officers and bureaucrats, and that the administration was largely infiltrated by members of these fanatic organisations. When the decision was taken to ban RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, the news was leaked out and the top leadership of both organisations went underground. In one instance a senior police officer advised RSS and Hindu Mahasabha cadres in his jurisdiction to lie low for some time till the heat subsided. It would not be surprising if the two police officials from Ahmednagar were actually on a trip to warn Karkare, Apte and Godse that the police were closing in, rather than to arrest them.
16.85 Witness No. 36, Lakshman Narayan Joshi is a D.S.P attached to the C.I.D., Bombay C.B.I. He was working as a Sub Inspector in the C.I.D. Ahmednagar in 1947-50 under D.S.P Ahmednagar.
16.86 On 10 January, Madanlal had told him that he was going to Delhi to get married. When the news of bomb throwing at Gandhiji's meeting came on the radio or was published in the newspapers it struck the witness that it was the same Madanlal who was in Ahmednagar and he talked to the sub-inspector about his suspicion. But evidently no use was made of this information, if indeed it was given. Secondly, when detention orders against Madanlal were passed and he absconded, this witness gave information of the absconding; or his going to Delhi assuming he knew of the detention orders. He also was searching for Madanlal. Sub-Inspector Deshmukh had a similar suspicion and he went to speak to the D.S.P. about the identity of this Madanlal. This was on or about the 24 January 1948. They both went to the D.S.P. but Deshmukh did the talking, Inspector Razak was also there. According to him the D.S.P. said that the Delhi Police should be coming to enquire and that they should not bother themselves about it but should arrest Karkare and get all the details of Madanlal. What that meant the witness did not know.
16.87 On the 27th or 28th January, Deshmukh asked the witness to accompany him to Poona. Why it was five days or so later, he could not say. As he knew some friends of Karkare in Poona, that is why they went to Poona. They visited Agranee press and some of Deshmukh's friends. While Deshmukh made inquiries, this witness stood outside. He does not know whether they went to Nathuram Godse's house but they did go to Apte's house, Anand Ashram, at about 15.30 or 16.00 hours. The witness went in and asked Mrs. Apte about the whereabouts of Karkare and she said not know about Karkare but Apte had gone to Nagpur for publishing Savarkar's literature and from there he might have gone to Gwalior.
16.89 The statement of this witness is rather important. Although he knew that Madanlal had gone to Delhi, he gave no information to Sub-Inspector Deshmukh. If the movements of Madanlal and Karkare were being watched and the witness knew Madanlal, as he says he did, it is difficult to believe that he did not know that the movements of Madanlal were being watched. Besides he took his meals at Karkare's hotel and so did Madanlal.
16.94 The witness says that he did not know about the activities of Karkare though he was friendly with him since 1937. He did not know that Karkare's house was searched in connection with the bomb explosion and yet in the next breath he says that he knew that Karkare's house was being searched in connection with the bomb explosions, and that Inspector Razak had come in that connection. He has admitted that he knew Mrs. Apte and her husband since long and that his friend wanted to get insurance of Apte but he does not know what company his friend was an agent for. He did hear Razak and Deshmukh talking about the detention of Karkare.
16.95 This witness was friendly with Karkare. He had helped him to start the Hotel. He had been friendly with Karkare for ten years and it is difficult to believe that he did not know about his (Karkare's) activities. He also knew Apte and was aware of the fact that Apte and Karkare were friends. He knew that Karkare was out of town and yet he gave no such information to the police when the police were looking for him. He also knew that Madanlal was leaving for Delhi, this information he did not give to his collegues I the police force. He had gone to Poona to find out Karkare some of whose friends he knew there.
16.96 Police Deputy Superintendent Anant Shamrao Balkundi, witness No. 37, is now the Deputy Superintendent of Police C.I.D. Aurangabad. From July 1945 to July 1948 he was a Sub-Inspector, C.I.D., at Ahmednagar.
16.98 When on the 20th January a bomb was exploded at Birla House at Mahatma's prayer meeting and the matter was reported in the Press this witness suspected that Madanlal therein described was the same person who had been carrying on activities in Ahmednagar. He conveyed his suspicions to Inspector Razak who in turn informed the D.S.P. but what orders the D.S.P. gave, the witness does not know.
16.101 The next piece of evidence which is of importance in connection with this witness is his explanation dated 9th February 1948 (Ex.69). He stated therein (1) that he was not aware of the D.I.G.'s camp at Ahmednagar; (2) that he could not make arrangements for interrogation of Ved Prakash on 1st February 1948 because of disturbances in the city; (3) that the D.S.P. informed him that he, the witness, was wanted at Poona with full details regarding the relatives and servants of Karkare and the collection of that information had kept him busy and he had handed over the information along with Karkare's photograph to deputy Superintendent Chaubal; (4) that he was constantly reporting about the movement of Karkare and Madanlal through weekly and special reports and had finally reported about the detention of both of them on 4th January 1948; ( 5) that after the meeting of Raosaheb Patwardhan on 6th January 1948 the atmosphere at Ahmednagar had become too hot for Karkare and Madanlal and therefore they had disappeared from Ahmednagar; (6) that Karkare had written to his wife that he would be arriving during the course of the week and strict watch was being kept at the Railway Station and motor stands; (7) that Karkare had gone to Kolhapur where he was likely to take shelter with a Jere.
16.103 Another important piece of evidence which em anates from the statement of this witness is that Godse and Apte both used to come to Ahmednagar and meet Karkare and that this witness and his staff were watching the activities of both Apte and Godse in Ahmednagar although nothing emanated from this attempted intelligence. The witness did not know if Karkare was sending any money to Godse and Apte. And he had no information about any plot being hatched in Ahmednagar.
16.136 The evidence from Ahmednagar shows that had efforts been made earlier
either by the Delhi Police or the Bombay Police the complete record of Karkare as well as of Madanlal would have been available and if a photograph had been published in the newspapers, the police of Ahmednagar would have come to know about him and would have been in a position to give the information. Commission would like to add that issuing photographs of arrested persons is not always a very wise mode of investigation because of the fear that identification parades or identification by witnesses might be held to be valueless. Nevertheless the Delhi Police should have sent a photograph of Madanlal to all Police stations and especially to the police stations of the places mentioned by him, this was a serious lapse.
MORARJI DESAI. WIT. 96
Morarji Desai was the Home minister of Bombay Government when the Congress party again took office in November 1946 and held that office during the period with the happenings of which this Commission is concerned and particularly from after August 1947 till 1949 covering the tragic events culminating in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi and the trial and conviction of his murderers.
18.12 Desai then said that the Hindu Mahasabha and its press were indulging in highly inflammatory communal propaganda, in consequence of which action had to be taken against the latter under the Press Emergency Powers Act. He could remember that there was a newspaper called the 'Agranee' of which the editor was Nathuram Godse, whom he knew, and the proprietor was Apte.
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