Lets Kill Gandhi
Page 104
VII
Seventhly, that in the pursuance of the said agreement and conspiracy on January 30, 1948, at the Birla House, Delhi you:
A(1) Nathuram V. Godse did commit murder by intentionally and knowingly causing the death of 'Mahatma Gandhi' and thereby committed an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and within the cognisance of the Court;
(2) Narayan D. Apte and Vishnu R. Karkare abetted Nathuram V. Godse in the commission of the above offence, which offence was committed in your presence, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 114 of the Indian Penal Code and within the cognisance of the Court;
(3) Madanlal K. Pahwa, Shankar Kistayya, Gopal V. Godse, Vinayak D. Savarkar and Dattatreya S. Parchure along with Digambar R. Badge abetted Nathuram V Godse in the commission of above offence and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code and within the cognisance of the Court.
H. Atmacharan,
I.C.S., Judge, Special Court.
22 June 1948, Red Fort, Delhi"
APPENDIX II
LIST OF WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTION AND THE DATE ON WHICH THEY APPEARED IN COURT
Ishwardutt Mulchand - C.I.D., Gwalior; 24th June
Ramlal Dutt - Manager, Sharif Hindu Hotel, Delhi; 24th June.
Shanti Prakash - Partner, Shrif Hindu Hotel, Delhoi; 25th June.
Ramsinh - Servant, Sharif Hindu Hotel, Delhi; 25th June.
Shantaram Amchekar - Refugee who stayed at Sharif Hindu Hotel with Karkare. 25th June.
Hiranandani - Clerk, Govt. Bureau of Transfers, Delhi; 25th June.
Ramchandra - Clerk, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 25th June.
Narayansingh - Head Bearer, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 25th June.
Mehar Singh - Sepoy, Forrest Department, Delhi: 29th June.
Kaleram - Bearer, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 29th June.
Govind Ram - Bearer, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 29th June.
Pacheko - Manager, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 29th June.
Martin Thaddeus - Clerk, Marina Hotel, Delhi; 29th June.
Surjeet Singh - Taxi Driver, Delhi; 30th June.
Sulochana Devi - Housewife, Delhi; 1st July.
Choturam - Servant, Birla House, Delhi; 1st July.
Bhuresinh - Watchman, Birla House, Delhi; 2nd July.
K.M. Sahni - Officer in Charge of Refugees, Karnal; 5th July.
Ram Prakash - Manager, Frontier Hindu Hotel, Delhi; 6th July.
Chamanlal Grover - Pancha, Delhi; 6th July. |
S.C. Rai - Explosives Inspector, Agra; 7th July.
Kunvar Singh - Police Photographer, Delhi; 7th July.
PR. Kailash - Officer Telephone Exchange, Delhi; 7th July.
Lala Badrinath - Ticket Clerk (Railways), Delhi 7th July.
N.N. Kapoor - Cartographer, Delhi; 7th July.
Sunderlal - Booking Clerk (Railways), Delhi Station; 8th July
Harikishan - Bearer, Delhi Station; 8th July.
Jannu - Cobbler, Delhi Station, 4th July.
Devkinandan - Head Constable, Delhi; 8th July.
Flight Sergeant Ramchandra - IAF, Delhi; 9th July.
Amarnath - Sub. Inspector of Police, Delhi; 9th July.
Nandlal Mehta - Gandhiji's Companion; 9th July.
Kabul Singh - Head Constable, Delhi; 9th July.
Ratan Singh - Constable, Delhi; 9th July.
Dhaluram - Assistant Sub. Inspector, Delhi; 9th July.
Parashram - Assistant Sub. Inspector, Delhi; 9th July.
Dharam Singh - Head Constable, Delhi; 9th July.
P.N. Taneja - Civil Surgeon, New Delhi; 12th July.
Jagdish Prasad Goel - Gwalior; 12th July.
Sardarilal Verma - Supervisor, Telephone Exchange, Delhi; 12th July.
Miss Balwant Kaur - Telephone Operator, Delhi; 12th June.
Miss G. Phurness - Telephone Operator, Delhi; 12th July.
Ghariba - 'Tonga' Horse Cab Driver, Gwalior; 13th July.
Jumma - 'Tonga' Horse Cab Driver, Gwalior; 13th July.
Shivpyarelal Dixit - Inquiry Clerk, Kanpur Station; 13th July.
A.B. Saksena - Clerk, Kanpur Station; 13th July.
Angelina Colestone - Matron, Kanpur Station; 13th July.
Raghupatirao Handa - Guide, Delhi Railway Station; 13th July.
Saiyad Manzarali Rizvi - Magistrate, Gwalior; 14th July.
Madhukar Keshav Kale - Gwalior; 14th July.
Madhukar Balkrushna Khaire - Gwalior; 15th July.
Ramdayal Singh - Gwalior; 15th July.
Jagunnath Singh - Gwalior; 15th July.
Gungansinh - Lambardar, Delhi; 16 July.
Biharilal - Thanedar, Delhi; 16th July.
R.B. Atal - Magistrate First Class, Gwalior; 19th July.
Digambar Badge - Approver, Poona; 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st July.
Dr. D.N. Goel - Scientist, Director, Punjab; 2nd August.
Satyavan Bhilaji Rale - Manager, Sea Green Hotel, Bombay; 2nd August.
Miss Shanta Bhaskar Modak - Actress, Poona, 3rd August.
Kashmirilal - Elphinstonee Hotel, Bombay; 3rd August.
Narsinh Bhagaji - Bombay Laundry, Poona. 3rd August.
Gayaprasad Dube - Arya Pathik Ashram, Bombay; 3rd August.
Govind Vishwanath Malekar - Servant, Elphinstone Hotel, Bombay; 3 August.
Candido Pinto - Clerk, Apollo Hotel, Bombay; 4th August.
Michael Patrick Kerry - Pancha, Bombay; 4th August.
Prof. Jagdish Chandra Jain - Ramnarayan Ruia College, Bombay; 4th, 5th, 9th August.
John Freitus - Pancha, Bombay; 9th August.
Gosvami Shrikrushnaji Maharaj - Bombay; 9th, 10th August.
Shridhar Narayan Vaidya - Insurance Company; Bombay 10th August.
Miss Lorena Bainbridge - Air Hostess, Bombay; 16th August.
Angad Singh - Agent, Bombay; 13th, 16th August.
Ganpat Bhimrao Afzulpurkar - Pensioner, Bombay; 16th August.
Charandas Meghji Mathuradas - Bombay; 16th to 20th August.
Leslie Perceival Pande - Kirkee; 16th to 20th August.
Raghunath Naik - Gardner, Birla House, Delhi; 16th to 20th August.
Gosvami Dixit Maharaj - Bombay; 20th, 21st,23rd August.
Morarji Desai - Home Minister, Bombay; 23rd, 24th, 25th August.
Vasant Gajanan Joshi - Thana, Bombay 25th August.
Aitappa Krishna Kotiyan - Taxi Driver, Bombay; 26th August.
Ganpat Sambhaji Kharat - M. L. A., Bombay; 26th August.
Gurbachan Singh - Delhi; 30th August.
Prabhakar Lakshman Afale - Clerk, Poona; 30th August.
Madhusudan Gopal Golwalkar - Gwalior; 30th August.
Pandurang Vinayak Godbole - Poona; 31st August.
Mahadev Ganesh Kale - Kurla, Bombay; 31st August.
Ramchandra Mohiniraj Patankar - Kurla, Bombay; 31st August.
Govind Vishnu Kale - Poona; 31st August.
Shiva Nagesh Shetty - Pancha, Bombay; 1st September.
Yashvant Shantaram Borkar - Pancha, Bombay, 1st September.
Vinaykumar Shantaram Pradhan - Pancha, Bombay; 1st September.
Krushna Chandra - Magistrate, Delhi; 2nd September.
S.R. Sehgal - Employee, Refugee Section, Delhi; 2nd September.
Ramanlal Desai - Ticket Collector, Vile Parle Railway Station, Bombay 3rd September.
John Gomes - Ticket Collector, Elphinstone Road Railway Station, Bombay; 3rd September.
Raghu Parmeshwar Naik - Pancha, Bombay; 3rd September.
Nathuram Agrawal - Railway Employee, Ajmer; 6th September.
J. Mendes - Railway Employee, Dadar, Bombay; 6th September.
Dattatreya Ramchandra Kate - Pancha, Bombay; 6th September.
K.P. Perreira - Pancha, Bombay; 7th September.
S.Y. Surve - Pancha, Bombay; 7th September.
Biharilal - Ludhiana, 7th Spetember.
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br /> Tryambak Hari Jachak - Pancha, Poona; 8th September.
Narayan Ganesh Dabke - Tailor, Poona; 8th September.
VS. Dalvi - Pancha, Bombay; 8th September.
Mahadev Govind Kulkarni - Pancha, Poona; 9th September.
Dinkar Pandurang Thorat Patil - Police Captain, Gwalior; 9th September.
Dr. P.D. Gokhale - Pancha, Poona; 10th September.
Balkrushan Vaman Inamdar - Pancha, Poona; 10th September.
Shivkannakunja Vilchand - Pancha, Bombay; 10 September.
Frank Rebello - Pancha, Bombay; 10th September.
Janardan Dinkar Savlekar - Employee Telegraph Department,Bombay; 10th September.
Brown - Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay; 13th September.
Gajanan Balkrushna Kawthankar - Pancha, Bombay; 14th September.
Dasvanda Singh - C.I.D., Delhi Police; 14th & 15th September.
Jaswant Singh - Police Captain, Delhi; 16th to 20th September.
Balkrushna Khanna - Imperial Bank, Gwalior; 20th September.
Namdeo Tayyappa Nagmode - Poona; 20th September.
Honaji Ganpat Shelar - Poona; 20th September.
Arun Gandhi - Pancha, Poona; 20th September.
Shankar Ganpat Ghadge - Bombay; 21 September.
Deulkar - Deputy Superintendent C.I.D., Poona; 21st & 22nd September.
Suryanarayan Vyas - Astrologer, Ujjain 21st & 22nd September.
M.K. Nerurkar - Employee, Palam Air Port, Delhi; 21st & 22nd September.
P. Jayraman - Clerk Air Services, Bombay; 27th September.
D.V. Mhaskar - Clerk, Education Department, Poona; 27th September.
B.S. Haldipur - Inspector of Police, Bombay; 27th, 28th & 29th September.
A.R. Pradhan - Inspector of Police C.I.D., Poona; 30th September.
C.R. Pradhan - Sub Inspector C.I.D., Bombay; 1st October.
Mandlik - Inspector of Police C.I.D., Gwalior; 1st to 4th October.
S.K. Bhavnagri - Explosives Inspector, Bombay; 4th &5th October.
J.D. Nagarvala - Deputy Commissioner C.I.D., Bombay; 5th,6th, 7th, 8th October.
Gajjar - Handwriting Analyst, Poona 21st, 25th, 26th,27thOctober.
Pinto - Inspector of Police C.I.D., Bombay; 27th & 28th October.
Raje - Police Photographer, Poona; 28th October.
Gulabchandra - Builder, Delhi 28th October.
Chakradhar - Booking Clerk, Railways, Delhi; 28th October.
Bhojaram - Railway Platform Inspector, Delhi; 29th October.
Major Dadabhai Manekjee - Gwalior; 29th October & 5th & 6th November.
H.B. Jarindkar - Head Clerk Agriculture Department, Poona; 29th October.
Ramprasad - Information Director, Gwalior; 29th October.
Vinayak Raghunath Darshethkar - Head Clerk, University of Bombay; 5th November.
Raghavan - Superintendent of Records, Gwalior; 5th November.
Keshav - Thanedar, Lashkar, Gwalior; 5th November.
Shyambahadur - Pancha, Gwalior; 5th & 6th November.
Adityaram - Astrologer, Delhi; 5th & 6th November.
Virendra Singh - Sub. Inspector of Police, Gwalior; 5th & 6th November.
Disallowed Witnesses
148. Jayprakash Kudesia - Ticket Collector, Thana Railway Station; 6th September.
149. J.S. Paranjape - Explosives Expert, Bombay; Was Not Called.
Important Dates of the Gandhi MurderConspiracy and Trial
20 January 1948 - Bomb explosion during Gandhi's evening prayer meeting.
30 January - Gandhi murdered.
8 May - Special court established in Delhi.
15 May - Names of the accused and the chargesheet filed.
27 May, 3 June and 14 June - Preliminary proceedings in Gandhi murder case.
22 June - Conditional pardon for Badge announced, Badge declared approver. Chargesheet published, statement of the prosecution counsel.
24 June - Examinations and recording of statement of prosecution witnesses.
20-31 June - Approver' Badge's statement recorded.
6 November - Examination and recording of statements of prosecution witnesses ends.
8-22 November - Statement of accused recorded and the accused questioned.
1-9 December - Arguments by prosecution counsels.
10-30 December - Arguments by defence counsels.
10 February 1949 - Judgement and sentencing.
APPENDIX III
(THIS HAS BEEN REPRODUCED VERBATIM) THE PROSECUTION'SVERSION
'Nathuram V Godse, is the editor and Narayan D. Apte, the manager of the Hindu Rashtra published from Poona. They are both Hindu Mahasabhaites, and are said to be close associates of each other and to have the same political outlook. Vishnu R. Karkare is a resident of Ahmednagar, he is also a Hindu Mahasabhaite, and is said to have been known to Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte for a considerable time and to have the same political outlook. Madanlal K. Pahwa is a refugee from the Punjab. He is said to have first come in contact with Vishnu R. Karkare and through him with Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte. Digambar R. Badge (approver) runs the Shastra Bhandar at Poona, and of late has been trafficking in arms, ammunition and explosives. He is also a Hindu Mahasabhaite, Shankar Kistayya is the servant of Digambar R. Badge, Gopal V Godse is the brother of Nathuram V. Godse. Vinayak D. Savarkar requires no introduction. He is the ex-president of the Hindu Mahasabha, and resides at the Savarkar Sadan, Bombay. Dr. Dattatreya S. Parchure resides at Gwalior and is said to be the leader of the Hindu Sabha at Gwalior. He is said to be a British subject domiciled in the 'Dominion of India'.
Partition of India
The partition of the country took place on 15 August 1947, and British India was divided into the 'Dominion of Pakistan' on 14 August, 1948, and the 'Dominion of India', on 15 August, 1948. The circumstances in which the Congress agreed to the partition of the country need not be mentioned here.
The partition of the Country into two Dominions, it is said, was strongly felt by the accused or at least by some of them. They thought that had it not been for Mahatma Gandhi, the country would never have been divided into two dominions. After the partition of the country what happened to the minority community in the Dominion of Pakistan is well known and need not be mentioned here. Mahatma Gandhi did all what he could to restrain any sort of counter attacks on the minority community in the dominion of India. This act on the part of Mahatma Gandhi was also strongly felt by the accused or at least by some of them.
Seeing how Mahatma Gandhi was striving to safeguard the interests of the members of the minority community in the Dominion of India, it is said the accused entered into a 'conspiracy' and hatched a plot to end his life. The suggestion of the prosecution appears to be that Vinayak D. Savarkar is the person who got the deed done through Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte in turn enlisted the support of Vishnu R. Karkare, Madanlal K. Pahwa, Gopal V. Godse, Dattatreya S. Parchure and Digambar R. Badge and through Digambar R. Badge the support of his servant Shankar Kistayya. Vinayak D. Savarkar, however, throughout kept himself behind the scene.
On 10 January 1948, Digambar R. Badge met Nathram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte at the Hindu Rashtra office at Poona and agreed to supply them with two gun cotton slabs and five hand grenades at the Hindu Mahasabha office at Dadar on 14 January 1948.
One Dr. J.C. Jain is on the staff of the Ruia College, Bombay. Madanlal K. Pahwa had been known to him for a number of months and" had first come in contact with him as a refugee. On or about 12 January 1948, Madanlal K. Pahwa came to the house of Prof. J.C. Jain, and had a long conversation with him. In the course of his conversation he told him that the members of his party had plotted against the life of Mahatma Gandhi and that he had been entrusted with exploding a bomb at the prayer meeting held by Mahatma Gandhi.
Nomination of the Policy
Nathuram V. Godse, at Poona effected nomination on his life policy for a sum of Rs.2,000 in favour of the wife of Narayan
D. Apte on 13th January 1948 and on his other life policy for a sum of Rs.3,000 in favour of the wife of Gopal V. Godse on 14 January 1948. Gopal V. Godse puts in an application for seven days casual leave, from 15 January 1948 till 21 January 1948, on 14th January 1948 at Kirkee (Poona). The application, however, was rejected.
On 14 January 1948 Digambar R. Badge, and Shankar Kistayya proceeded to Bombay. They carried two gun cotton slabs and five hand grenades with primers and detonators. At Bombay, they met Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte at the Hindu Mahasabha office in Dadar. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte told Digambar R. Badge that arrangements would have to be made for the keeping of the 'Stuff'. They took him to Savarkar Sadan.
Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte entered the compound of Savarkar Sadan and left Digambar R. Badge outside. They carried the 'stuff' brought by Digambar R. Badge. They came out of the compound of Savarkar Sadan shortly afterwards, still carrying the 'stuff'. Then along with Digambar R. Badge, they went back to the Hindu Mahasabha office. Nathuram V. Godse, Narayan D. Apte and Digambar R. Badge along with Shankar Kistayya then proceeded to the house of one Dixit Maharaj at Bhuleshwar. Dixit Maharaj had gone to sleep. The 'stuff' was left in charge of his servant. They then returned to the Hindu Mahasabha Office. Narayan D. Apte, through Nathuram V. Godse, paid a sum of Rs.50/- towards travelling expenses to Digambar R. Badge. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan I). Apte went away telling Digambar R. Badge that they would look him up the next morning.
Badge Meets Madanlal
Digambar R. Badge met Madanlal K. Pahwa at the Hindu Mahasabha Office. Madanlal K. Pahwa knew Digambar R. Badge from before, and asked him - 'Kab Aya?', when he had come? Digambar R. Badge asked Madanlal K. Pahwa where Vishnu R. Karkare was? Madanlal replied that Karkare was visiting Thana and was expected back shortly.
On 15 January 1948 at about 7.20 a.m. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte got two seats reserved in the name of 'D.N. Karmarkar' and 'S. Marathe' by the afternoon plane scheduled to leave Bombay for Delhi on 17 January 1948.
On 15 January 1948 at about 8.30 a.m. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte reached the Hindu Mahasabha Office and met Madanlal K. Pahwa, Shankar Kistayya and Digambar R. Badge. Madanlal K. Pahwa had not dressed up till then. Nathuram V. Godse and Narayan D. Apte along with Digambar R. Badge and Shankar Kistayya then proceeded to the Shivaji Printing Press and met Vishnu R. Karkare there. G.M. Joshi of Thana is the proprietor of the Press. Nathuram V. Godse, Narayan D. Apte, Vishnu R. Karkare and Digambar R. Badge met G.M. Joshi. Shankar Kistayya was asked to wait outside the press.