18.166 The Crime Report also showed that inquiries had been made about Badge also but Badge never came to Bombay, so the question of his identification never arose. Nagarvala discussed with Rana what he had already done but Madanlal's statement was not discussed. He kept a small diary in which he had some names which were the names in the Crime Report. Badge's name was also there. When a portion of Rana's letter addressed to Kamte was read out to Nagarvala, he said that it was incorrect that persons mentioned by Madanlal were hiding in Bombay. He said that he had done his job and he was quite satisfied with what he had done.
Nagarvala could not be bothered that his satisfaction with having done his job had been largely responsible for helping Nathuram Godse murder Gandhi, but then according to Nagarvala's way of reasoning the deed was done in Delhi which was outside his jurisdiction.
18.169 The Commission would like to remark that Badge was arrested on 31 January after the murder and his house was searched. The order for his arrest on 24th apparently was because he was suspected to be connected with Karkare. It would have been fruitful if at that stage the aid of Poona Police had been sought. An earlier arrest should have been more useful.
18.171 Nagarvala said that it was correct that he wanted the Delhi Police Officers to interrogate Avatar Singh but they were not prepared to do so. He could not force them because they were not prepared to do so. He could not force them because they were not subordinate to him. He got the statement of Madanlal on 5 February 1948. He also said that the house of Savarkar was kept constantly under watch and he could not say where Bharucha, the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, got his information from that the conspirators visited the house of Savarkar and still they were not detected.
Nagarvala claims that Savarkar's home was continuously under watch but on 31st after the murder when it came under attack, where were his watchers? Since his department did not know who to look out for, how would they have known whether the conspirators had visited Savarkar's home or not?
18.178 Nagarvala stated that from their police statement it appears that both Nathuram Godse and Apte were staying in the Elphinstone Hotel, and Arya Pathik Ashram under assumed names as from 23rd when they came to Bombay by Calcutta Punjab Mail up to the 27th when the left Bombay for Delhi by air but at that time he had no knowledge of their being in the conspiracy.
18.179 It therefore, appears that after the bomb was thrown and N.D. Apte returned to Bombay he stayed in the Ashram under an assumed name although the owner of the Ashram knew what his correct name was. It is surprising that he was allowed to do so with the knowledge and connivance of the owner.
18.181 At this stage Counsel for the Government of India made a statement saying that his case was not that Karkare was at Ahmednagar during the period 21st to the time of his arrest but his case was that if information had been given to Ahmednagar Police the whereabouts of Karkare could be more effectively found out. The Commission wholly disagrees with this view. Ahmednagar Police knew nothing about Karkare's whereabouts and cared less. But they did have a full record of his activities and knew that he was an associate of N.D. Apte and that could have been available to the Bombay Police.
18.185 When asked about finding out from Ahmednagar Police as to the associates of Karkare. He said that he found out from Ahmednagar Police that Karkare was not there and he did not make any further inquiries but continued his inquiries in Bombay about him and his associates. He did not ask his brother to give the names of Karkare's associates. 'Question of associates would have arisen if he would have got Karkare because people who came and saw Karkare did not become his associates.' He said that the D.S.P, Ahmednagar could not have thrown more light on Karkare. The persons who were on his list were not necessarily associates of Karkare; those were names of persons who were anti-Mahatma Gandhi and might kidnap him and do harm to him. One of the main objects of writing the Crime Report at that stage was that it might not later on be said that associating the name of Savarkar with the conspiracy was an after thought.
18.188 During the course of his inquiry and from the information received he had reason to believe that there was a gang which was likely to kidnap the Mahatma. He was not obsessed by any theory much less kidnapping theory. He added that if information regarding kidnapping persistently came in and was credibly correct, howsoever much one might disagree with it one had to work on it. The purpose of kidnapping as far as he knew was that if Mahatma was not there the 55 crores would not have been paid to Pakistan.
18.189 In Ex.7, paragraph 8, Sanjevi had stated:
'I asked him about the absconding accused whose names or descriptions were given to the Delhi Police by Madanlal. Nagarvala told me that he would send me a detailed note on the investigation made at Bombay City and elsewhere in the Province by air the next day.'
Nagarvala was given an opportunity to reply to this matter and his reply was that the statement in Paragraph 8 was not correct and that Sanjevi in his telephonic talk never asked him about any absconding accused. In his conversation with Sanjevi, Nagarvala had mainly referred to the information which he had received about the conspiracy to kidnap Mahatma Gandhi by a large gang. It was his practice to confirm by letter the substance of a telephonic talk and he, therefore, sent a confirmatory letter on 30 January 1948 summarising the talk which he had with Sanjevi on the telephone and the letter is a correct record of the talk he said.
18.192 He did mention about the kidnapping theory to Morarji Desai and if the latter says that he did not then it must be a lapse of his memory. (One thing that no one could accuse Morarji Desai was a lapse of memory, till his death, at ninety-eight, the man possessed a remarkably efficient memory. He recollected events in the minutest details, and was not habituated of embellishing or editing.) He met the Home Minister several times between the 20th and 30th January in connection with the information which the Home minister had given him.
18.197 Evidence has been produced before the Commission contained in Intelligence Bureau file No. 13/HA(R)/59-II, Ex.224-A which contains certain documents which if they had been obtained earlier might have been of great assistance in the investigation or inquiry which was going on at Bombay. Chaubal of the office of the D.I.G., C.I.D. sent to Nagarvala after the murder a document giving the list of relatives and associates of Karkare and amongst them was N.D. Apte, and the next document of importance is a letter with which were sent three copies of photographs of V.R. Karkare and his descriptive role. Along with this photograph of Karkare were sent three copies of the photograph of Apte so that reference to the D.I.G., C.I.D. Poona would have been most useful even for Nagarvala's inquiry or working out the information given to him by the Home minister.
18.199 The evidence of Police witnesses from Ahmednagar shows that they had a complete dossier on the activities of Madanlal and Karkare. As a matter of fact it was S. I. Balkundi who furnished the information to Dy. Supdt. Chaubal about Karkare and his association with Apte. If the District police of Ahmednagar had been asked it seems not only possible but probable that the information and photograph of Karkare supplied after the murder would have been supplied earlier.
18.201 The Commission has been thinking as to how the idea of kidnapping came to be considered the objective of the conspirators by Bombay Police. One explanation may be (the) faulty understanding of the Punjabi language by the contacts and informers because many Punjabi words sound alike though they are different words and some times same words have different meanings in different contexts e.g. 'Dus' meaning ten and also 'to show'. This may be highly conjectural an explanation but the theory of kidnapping was so astounding that some such mistake must have led to its being considered respectable.
J.S. BHARUCHA'S STATEMENT—WIT. 22
18.202 J.S. Bharucha, IP, was Commissioner of Police, Bombay, witness No. 22, during the period with which the inquiry is concerned.
18.204 His information was that the Delhi Police did come to Bombay but they did not do very much and Nagarvala told him that they were not of much use. A
fter the murder, he (Bharucha) asked Nagarvala as to why he did not tell him anything about Professor Jain and his reply was that Morarji Desai had asked him to keep the whole thing confidential. Morarji Desai dealt with the police directly, although the orders to the police should have come through the Home Secretary.
18.205 He was shown Ex5-A and asked if he would be able to make anything of it. His reply was 'yes' and he would be able to do so particularly in regard to the Editor 'Hindu Rashtra' and 'Agranee' and also Karkare. From Ex. 5-A it should have been possible for the Bombay Police to find out from the Poona Police as to who the conspirators were. He was for two months D.S.P. of Poona and at that time he must have known something about Nathuram Godse. If he had been told that Nathuram had met Savarkar, he would have got in touch with the Poona Police and tried to locate the companions of Madanlal. He did not think that Poona Police was pro-RSS. If there was cooperation between Bombay Police and Poona District Police and C.I.D. Poona, arrest of conspirators would not have been difficult, and if Bombay Police had got in touch with Angarkar and Gurtu and Kamte, it would not have been 'difficult to nip the controversy in the bud'.
18.208 Rana, when he returned from Delhi did not meet this witness and, therefore, he never came to know about the statement of Madanlal. He was asked about what he should have done knowing that a bomb had been thrown at Mahatma Gandhi's meeting. His reply was as follows:
Q. 'When you came to know that a bomb had been thrown at Mahatma Gandhi's meeting by a person who was a refugee from West Punjab but then living in Bombay, would it not have been your ordinary duty to find out who this man was, who his other co-conspirators were and how serious the matter was?'
A. 'From the information that I had, I did not think it was serious enough for me to initiate any investigation myself. I remember I did not do anything. Nobody thought it to be so serious as it turned out to be.'
18.209 In cross-examination he stated that he could not remember if during the time that he was D.S.P, Poona he came to know anything about the conspiracy to murder. He surprisingly replied, 'I do not remember'. He could not remember if Apte was arrested during his term of office. During the investigation of the bomb case he had no information about the conspiracy to kidnap Mahatma Gandhi, nor that the Deputy Commissioner was working on it. He could not exactly remember what Nagarvala told him about the visit of the Delhi Police officers.
18.210 He did not know at that time that Savarkar's house was being watched. As it was an important matter, information should have been given to him. After the murder, he met Savarkar, who told him (Bharucha) that he had nothing to do with Gandhiji's murder. From that Bharucha concluded that there was something wrong. He immediately went and met Morarji Desai and told him that he suspected Savarkar and also told him what Savarkar had said to him. Morarji Desai said to Bharucha, 'Why do you not arrest him?' at that time Savarkar was really ill and Bharucha told Morarji Desai about it. Nagarvala had deposed that Savarkar was feigning illness.
Chapter XIX of the Kapur Commission's Report deals with the communal Hindu organisations, Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and the Hindu Rashtra Dal.
19.19 R.K. Khadilkar, witness No. 97, said that they felt at the time that the kind of fanaticism they were having in Poona among the Hindu Sabha circles would lead to violence. The danger to Mahatma Gandhi, he added, came from Hindu fanatics i.e. the small section of Hindu Rashtra Dal which was part of Hindu Mahasabha and RSS.
19.21 R.S. Gurtu, witness No. 22, stated that reports came to him about the communal activities of Nathuram Godse, Karkare, Apte, Badge and several others. They carried on propaganda against Gandhiji's policies qua Muslims but he could not remember if there were any propaganda for doing harm to Mahatma Gandhi, least of all murdering him. There were reports of their preparing bombs but that they were not meant to be used against Mahatma Gandhi. When he heard about the bomb explosion at Birla House, he had a vague suspicion that that might be the work of Hindu Mahasabha and RSS group. But he had no idea that it was the work of Godse group.
19.27 Another document which is demonstrative of the attitude of Nathuram Godse, is Ex. 71 which is a Marathi record of the proceedings of a meeting of the Hindu Mahasabha held at Shivaji Mandir on 28 November 1947, at 6.30 pm The audience was about two thousand and the speakers were V.B. Gogte and N.V. Godse. The subject of the speeches was 'Hindu Nation and Jayprakash Narayan', and was a quick reply to J.P. Narayan's speech made in Poona. The speakers ridiculed Jayprakash Narayan about his socialism and accused the socialists of helping in the creation of Pakistan and the Partition of India and its consequences. At that meeting Nathuram Godse said: 'Allegations have been made that the Sangh and the Hindu Sabha have hatched a conspiracy to murder Pandit Nehru because he said that he would brandish his sword on behalf of the British Government for finishing Subhash Babu as he was a traitor.'
There was some reference to Mahatma Gandhi also and that Socialism was the unclaimed progeny of Gandhism. The speech ended with 'The Hindu Mahasabha and the Sangh have been subjected to criticism. The main reason is that they saw 'Kansa'.
ACTIVITIES OF HINDU MAHASABHA IN DELHI
19.32 The Abstract of Intelligence dated 31 January 1948, Ex. 136, also gives the activities of the Hindu Mahasabha. It shows that a procession was taken out on 25 January in connection with Arya Samaj Anniversary. Swami Dharmananda said that the fast undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi has spoiled 'the show' to remove Muslims from Delhi.
19.35 Prof. Ram Singh was examined by the Commission as witness No. 75. He put the position of Hindu Mahasabha as follows: 'It was opposed to the partition and was trying to undo the disadvantages thereof. It was in favour of all Hindus being brought safe to India from Pakistan. It was opposed to the policy of Mahatma Gandhi of placating the Muslims and keeping them in India and getting the mosques vacated which had been taken possession of by Hindus and Sikhs, who had placed their deities and religious symbols there. It was also opposed to keeping Muslim houses vacant when Hindus and Sikhs were without shelter and pregnant Hindu women were giving birth to children and had nowhere to go to. It was also opposed to 55 crores being placed at the disposal of Pakistan to continue its Kashmir war. He said that he was not in favour of murder of Mahatma Gandhi and no Hindusabhaite was. The Hindu Mahasabha was not in favour of assassination of leaders and they were not responsible for the shouting of 'Madanlal Zindabad'.
THE RSS IN BOMBAY PROVINCE
19.42 The activities of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha must have come to the notice and been under the consideration of the Bombay Government in 1947; because we find that in confidential secret document Ex 177 B.G. Kher, the then Premier, made three suggestions regarding these bodies, that (1) complete list of officers and members of the RSS be collected by the police and submitted to Government; (ii) similar order as to the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha organisations, and (iii) strict watch be kept on the operation of the two organisations. There was no date on this order but on August 7 1947, Morarji Desai issued an order to the D.I.G., C.I.D. and to the Commissioner of Police, Bombay to get the requisite information within 10 days; the information should be discretely obtained and must be correct and complete in all respects.
19.45 It does not appear that any separate list was prepared of the RSS by the D.I.G., C.I.D., nor does this list show that the various persons whose names are given in this list were members of the RSS. But there is evidence to show that many RSS members were members of the Hindu Mahasabha. This list contains the names of Nathuram Godse who is known as a staunch Savarkarite, of N.D. Apte who is shown as potentially dangerous, of G.V. Ketkar shown as a staunch Savarkarite and the brain behind Hindu Sabha activities and influential, N.R. Athawale also shown as potentially dangerous and staunch Savarkarite, and D.R. Badge is also shown as potentially dangerous and dealer in unlicensed arms.
19.46 to this is added another list, Ex.ll4-A, which is of Ahmednagar. It mentions N.R. Karkare as a smuggler of arms, coworker of N.D. Apte and potentially dangerous. But both Ex. 114 and Ex.11
4-A are provincial lists. The district list of Ahmednagar does not give all this elaborate information.
19.55 We may take up the evidence relating to the activities of the RSS at Delhi. Bannerjee, witness No 19 has stated:
'Some of the activities of the RSS were considered to be anti-social and objectionable and the feeling was that Government was showing itself rather tardy in dealing with this organisation.'
19.64 On page 687 of his book Pyarelal has said the following:
'The RSS was a communalist, para-military, Fascist organisation, controlled from Maharashtra. The key-positions were held almost exclusively by the Maharashtrians. Their declared object was to set up Hindu Raj. They had adopted the slogan 'Muslims clear out of India'. At the time they were not very active, at least overtly, but it was being darkly hinted that they were only waiting for all the Hindus and Sikhs in West Pakistan to be evacuated. They would then wreak full vengeance on the Indian Muslims for what Pakistan had done.
19.67 On or about 12 September 1947 the head of the RSS called upon Gandhiji and told him that they were not for killing of Muslims, but for protection of Hindus i.e. they were a protective and not destructive force and that RSS stood for peace. But when the Mahatma asked them to openly repudiate the allegations and condemn killings and harassment of Muslims they said that Gandhi could do it himself. A few days later the leaders of the RSS took Gandhiji to attend one of their rallies which they were holding at the Sweeper's Colony. They welcomed Gandhiji and called him a great man that Hinduism had produced. In reply Gandhiji said that he was proud of being a Hindu but his Hinduism was not intolerant not exclusive.
19.72 According to the diary of Manibehn Patel dated 1 February 1948, 'Members of the RSS came and said to Sardar that their organisation was not involved in the murder.'
This is a strange revelation since on the evening of 31 January immediately after the funeral a meeting of senior members of the Cabinet, bureaucrats and police was held and a decision was taken to ban the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, and yet the Union Home minister's daughter reveals that her father received members of the RSS at his official home, the next morning.
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