Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  'I requested Dixit Maharaj to ask his servant to fetch the bag. He could not get it immediately but it was brought out after an hour. I opened the bag and showed all the 'stuff' to Apte. Then I repacked the bag and handed it over to Apte. Apte handed over the bag to Karkare. Apte told him that he should leave for Delhi by the Frontier or Punjab Mail along with Madanlal. Karkare gave the bag to Madanlal and asked him to pack it inside the bedding. Then Karkare and Madanlal left, Dixit Maharaj's residence.

  'Finish off Gandhi, Nehru and Suhrawardy!'

  The rest off us sat down in Dixit Maharaj's room and started talking with him. Apte told him that we were going to Delhi on a very important mission, and asked Dixit Maharaj to give us one or two revolvers. Dixit Maharaj said that he did not have any revolvers, he had a small pistol in his possession, but he refused to give it to Apte. Apte asked Dixit Maharaj to at least ensure that he got us one revolver. Dixit Maharaj agreed to try to get one for us. We then came out of Dixit Maharaj's home and stood in the courtyard. Apte asked me if I would to accompany them to Delhi? I asked him 'Why should I come?' Apte told me that Savarkar had decided that Gandhiji, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Hasan Shaheed Suhrawardy were to be finished off, he had entrusted this task to Apte and Godse. He said that if I agreed to go with them they would bear my travel and boarding costs.

  'I informed Apte that I could not go directly from Bombay to Delhi, I had to complete some domestic tasks first and so would have to go to Poona, after that I would leave for Delhi. Godse said that he too needed to go to Poona to inquire if his brother Gopal had managed to get one revolver as promised. Gopal Godse was to also come to Bombay and then accompany us to Delhi. Then we got into the taxi and came to the Cotton Exchange Building at Pydhonie. Godse and Apte went into the Building and came back after twenty to twenty- five minutes. I got out of the car. Apte told me that I should meet them at the Boribunder, Victoria Terminus Station on the morning of 17th January. I went to the Hindu Mahasabha Office at Dadar.

  'That evening I met Madanlal in front of the Hindu Mahasabha Office. He told me that they had missed their train and could not leave for Delhi as planned. Karkare was waiting at the Station. Madanlal would join him after finishing some personal work. He said that they would now leave for Delhi by the night train.

  'I left for Poona by the night train on 15th January, along with Kistayya. We reached Poona after midnight on the next day. I know a person named Deshmukh who lives in Poona. I met him on 16th January at Poona. I wanted to give some goods to him, which he would then sell to the territorial Congress people in the Nizam's territories. I wanted to sell off my entire stock that day since I had to leave to join Apte and his group and proceed with them to Delhi. While returning from the home of Kharat, I met N.V. Godse at the office of Hindu Rashtra, I had gone past the Hindu Rashtra office when Godse hailed me twice and called me back. Godse wanted to confirm that I would accompany them to Delhi, I assured him thatI would.

  'Later Godse brought a small pistol to me and asked me to exchange it for a bigger revolver. I went to the home of a worker of the Hyderabad State Congress, Sharma. I had recently sold a 32-guage revolver to him. I convinced Sharma to exchange the revolver for the pistol, he agreed and handed over the revolver with four live rounds.

  'That night Shankar and I caught a train for Bombay at 2.40 a.m., we reached Bombay early in the morning of 17th, I asked Shankar to get off at Dadar and wait for me at the Hindu Mahasabha Office, I proceeded to Victoria Terminus to keep my rendezvous with Narayan Apte and Nathuram Godse. I met them just outside the platform. Apte suggested that we should collect some money before leaving for Delhi. Apte hailed a taxi and we left for Government Gate Road at Lalbaug where the Bombay Dyeing Works were situated, we met the owner Charandas Meghji Mathuradas there. I introduced Apte and Godse to him.

  Blessings of Savarkar

  'From there we came to the Hindu Mahasabha Office at Dadar and picked up Kistayya. When all of us got into the cab, Godse suggested that we should seek the final blessings of Savarkar. So we proceeded to Savarkar Sadan. We asked Shankar to wait in the taxi and the three of us entered Savarkar's home. Apte asked me to wait in a room on the ground floor; he and Godse went up to the first floor. They returned in five to ten minutes followed by Savarkar. He addressed Godse and told him, 'Yashasvi houn yaa.' 'Return after being successful.' Then we proceeded towards Ruia College in the same taxi. On the way Apte said, 'Tatyarao ni ase bhavishya kele ahe ki ata Gandhi chi shambhar varshe bharli. Ata kahi sanvshay nahi ki apla kaam yashasvi honaar.'' Tatyarao, Savarkar, has predicted that now Gandhi's hundred years are over. There is no doubt that our work will be successful.'

  (Apte had said this in Marathi,'Gandhi chi Shambhar Varshe Bharli'. The prosecution ensured that the Court got the Marathi words written down in the Roman script. Oak, Godse's counsel wrote the sentence, closely supervised by Chief Prosecutor Daftary.)

  'Then we went to Afzalpurkar's home and stayed there for about fifteen to twenty minutes. I wanted to talk to him about a bullet proof vest I was developing. I introduced Godse and Apte to him. We discussed the situation in Hyderabad state. Afzalpurkar gave us a hundred rupees. After accepting Rupees hundred from Afzalpurkar we went to the home of Kale by taxi. We took Patankar along with usto show us the way to Kale's home. Godse, Apte, Patnakar and I wen tinto Kale's home. We asked Shankar to remain in the taxi. Patankar introduced Godse and Apte to Kale and then left. Then Godse and Apte began to talk to Kale in English which I could not make heads or tails of. After about five or ten minutes of conversation, Kale went up the stairs, and came down with a wad of money, he handed it over to Godse. There were ten to fifteen Hundred Rupee notes in the wad.

  'All of us then went back to the Bombay Dyeing Works. The younger brother of the owner was in the office. Shankar and I got out of the taxi and waited there, Godse and Apte left somewhere in the taxi. After one and a half hours, Apte returned in the same taxi, he was alone, Godse had taken another taxi and gone somewhere else lo complete some work. The owner of Bombay Dyeing Works had also returned by the time Apte arrived. Apte talked to him in English for almost fifteen minutes. All of us then got into the taxi and came to Dixit Maharaj's home. Leaving Shankar in the taxi, Apte and I entered the house. Apte wanted to collect a revolver from Dixit Maharaj. Dixit Maharaj showed him a small pistol. Apte approved the pistol, Dixit Maharaj refused to hand over the pistol till payment was made. Apte reminded him that his elder brother Dada Maharaj had promised to provide a pistol, 'you must give me atleast this pistol'. But Dixit Maharaj refused to give the pistol and finally we left empty handed from there.

  'We first went to the Juhu Air Port by mistake and then rushed from there to the Santa Cruz Air Port. Apte gave me Rs.350/- and asked me to leave that very night for Delhi by train with Shankar Kistayya. Then Kistayya and I carried on in the same taxi to Kurla to meet Patwardhan. He was not there at that time. I decided to stay there, and so I paid the taxi driver Rs. 55 and paise 50 and took a receipt from him before sending him off. We stayed there till 9.30 p.m., Patwardhan gave me Rs. 400.'

  'On 18th January, Shankar and I went back to Dixit Maharaj's home in the morning. We did not get any funds or weapons from him. We stayed there till the mid afternoon. We reached Victoria Terminus Station by 2.30 p.m. and got into an Inter Class compartment of the Punjab Mail, and left for Delhi.'

  Arrival in Delhi, Preparations for the Murder

  'We reached Delhi on the evening of 19th January at 9.30 pm. We got into a tonga and reached the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan. We found Madanlal sitting in the hall there with another person. Madanlal introduced him to us, he was Nathuram Godse's younger brother, Gopal Godse. A little later Apte, Karkare and Godse also arrived. They asked me, Shankar, Gopal and Madanlal to sleep in the hall that night and promising to come back the next morning, then they left.

  "On the morning of 20th January, Apte and Karkare came to the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan at 8.30 a.m., they gave Madanlal some money to buy fuel and then left. Apte retur
ned after half an hour and asked Shankar and me to accompany him to Birla House. We went to Birla House by a car and halted it at the main gate. When Apte and I got out of the car and tried to enter the sentry stopped us. Apte told him that we wished to meet Gandhiji's secretary. The sentry asked us to write our names and the reason we wished to meet on a chit and give it to him. Apte scribbled something on the chit and handed it to the sentry. As the sentry went in with the chit, a person wearing a black suit stepped out of the gate. Apte gestured towards the person and whispered to me - 'That's Suhrawardy, he sits next to Gandhiji during the prayers'.

  'Just then the sentry returned and Apte and I entered the compound of Birla House. We proceeded towards the lawns at the rear of the house where the prayer meetings were held. Apte pointed to a place and said that Gandhiji and Suhrawardy would be sitting here. Apte showed me a ventilator or window; it was covered by a trelliswork grill. Apte measured the apertures of the grill and said that one could fire a revolver through this and also throw a hand grens.de. "As far as possible we should ensure that both Gandhiji and Suhrawardy will be finished in the initial attack itself. If we can not get both of them, we must ensure that at least one is killed".

  'Then we went to the other side of the platform. Apte pointed at two places, one place was right in front near the wall and the other was on the left. He said, "We will explode a gun cotton slab at both the spots, so that people's attention will be diverted towards the blasts, then in the confusion we will kill Gandhiji without being noticed". Apte told me that there was a room behind the ventilator, "you can enter it posing as a photographer". Once inside I could fire from behind the grill and also throw a grenade through the aperture. We did not enter the room but we went right around and saw the lay of the place from all around.'

  "On 20th January we returned to Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan at 11.30 a.m. after casing the entire Birla House compound and the prayer ground thoroughly. Apte left me at the Mahasabha and went somewhere, he returned after twenty to twenty-five minutes. Apte then told Gopal Godse that we must go into the forest behind the Mahasabha Bhavan and test the guns. Gopal Godse and I had carried one revolver each with us to Delhi. Then Apte, Gopal, Shankar and I went into the jungles at the rear of the Mahasabha Bhavan. Gopal carried a .38 bore revolver; Shankar was carrying the other which was either a .32 or .22 bore.

  'When we reached a spot deep inside the jungle and tried out the revolvers, we realised that the revolver brought by Gopal was totally jammed and in an absolutely inoperable condition. Apte then inspected the revolver carried by Shankar. He loaded four bullets in its chambers and asked Shankar to fire it. Shankar was asked to fire at a tree from ten paces. There was something wrong the bullet did not even reach the tree. It fell to the ground, a few feet short. Apte rejected that revolver too. Gopal decided to clean and repair his revolver, right there. He asked Shankar to go and fetch a knife and a bottle of oil from his bag lying at the Mahasabha Bhavan. Soon Shankar returned with the things Gopal had asked for. While Gopal was repairing his revolver three Forest Guards came up to us. One of them asked us - 'What are you doing here?' Before the guards could reach us we hid the revolvers under a bed sheet we had spread on the ground. Gopal answered their questions and then chatted with them in Punjabi, soon the three guards left.

  'Apte said that it wasn't safe to remain there any longer, and so we returned to the Mahasabha Bhavan. We found Karkare and Madanlal sitting in the hall. Apte told Karkare to proceed to the Marina Hotel and to take Madanlal along with him; he told Karkare that we would also reach the Marina Hotel within a short while. Madanlal had left the bedding back at the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan. A little while after those two had left, Apte asked Gopal and all of us to also proceed towards the Marina Hotel. 'Gopal you carry the bag containing the 'stuff' with you'. Gopal picked up the bag and all of us came to Marina Hotel. We found Nathuram Godse lying on a cot in a room on the third floor of the hotel. Gopal placed the bag in the room. Shankar and I came down again and had lunch.

  'When we returned after lunch we saw that Gopal was still repairing his gun. After entering the room we bolted the doors from the inside. Apte, Karkare, Madanlal and I went into the bathroom, Nathuram Godse and Shankar stood near the bathroom door. The four of us started preparing the gun cotton slabs, we fixed detonators, primer and fuse wire to the slabs of gun cotton and transformed them into ready to explode, deadly bombs. At that time, addressing me, Nathuram Godse said - 'Badge, ha amcha shevat cha prayatna ahe, he kam aaj zalech pahije, sagla vyavasthit foda', 'Badge, this is our last attempt, the work must get done today. Ensure that everything is properly connected.' Here it must be noted that Nathuram could be using the 'Amcha' 'Our', either in its plural meaning or as a singular in the regal manner. Many high caste Maharashtrians had the habit of referring to themselves, using the pompous 'we', instead of the humble 'I'.)

  Weapons Distributed - Code Names Given -Disguises Adopted

  Badge continued, 'By the time we finished preparing the gun cotton bomb and primed the hand grenades and came back into the room, Gopal had repaired and cleaned his revolver. Apte said, "Now we must decide who will carry which weapon and explosive. Ok, Madanlal and Shankar the two of you carry a gun cotton bomb and a hand grenade each. Nathuram, Gopal and Karkare will carry one hand grenade each and Badge and I will carry a revolver each". I told them that only one gun cotton slab was enough to create a panic amongst the people, "It is too much to expect one person to explode two gun cotton bombs at two locations and remain unnoticed. Give one gun cotton bomb and one hand grenade to Madanlal. Shankar and I will carry one hand grenade and one revolver each. The rest of you carry one hand grenade each". Nathuram and Apte would signal all the others and synchronise our actions. Apte gave the final instructions. "Madanlal you explode a gun cotton bomb on the rear wall as close to the podium as possible. Badge as soon as the bomb goes off enter the rear room of the servant's quarter posing as a photographer and fire on Gandhiji from behind and also throw a grenade at him through the apertures in the ventilator grill. I will signal Madanlal and Nathuram will keep signalling me. The rest will mingle with the audience at the prayer meeting".'

  'Apte then gave all of us our code names. Nathuram Godse - Deshpande, Karkare - Vyas, Apte - Karmarkar, Badge - Bandopant and Shankar - Tukaram. I don't remember the code names given to Gopal and Madanlal. Apte also said that we should adopt suitable disguises. Nathuram decided to wear khaki clothes similar to a military uniform; Apte wore a blue suite; Karkare wore a Jawahar shirt (long shirt), dhoti and a Gandhi topi; Madanlal dressed like an Englishman in a coat, shirt and trousers; Gopal wore a shirt, shorts and a jacket; I wore a dhoti and a Jawahar coat; Shankar wore a coat, kameez (shirt), dhoti and a topi; Karkare shaved off his moustache and darkened his thin sideburns with an eye pencil. He applied a bright vermilion tilak on his forehead.

  'Then Apte handed over a gun cotton bomb and a hand grenade to Karkare asking him to give it to Madanlal. He gave me and Shankar a hand grenade and a revolver each. Then Madanlal and Karkare left for the Birla House. Fifteen minutes later Apte, Shankar, Gopal and I got into a taxi and headed for Birla House. Nathuram had promised that he would leave after twenty minutes and meet us at Birla House. From Marina Hotel we first went to the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan.

  22 July 1948: Continuing his testimony, Badge described the events as they had happened on the fateful 20th January after Madanlal lit the fuse and exploded the gun cotton bomb at the Birla House prayer ground.

  'I had taken my revolver and hand grenade hidden in a hand bag. After leaving the Marina Hotel we first went to the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan and then to the Birla House. We drove directly to the rear and asking the driver to park the car in the roundabout behind the servant's quarters, we got out of the car. We must have hardly covered a distance of a few paces when we met Madanlal. Apte asked Madanlal - 'Tayar ho kya?' 'Are you ready?' Madanlal replied - 'Han, taiyaar hun.' 'Yes, I am ready. I have placed the gun cotton bomb on the wall, now I only have to light the f
use.' At that moment I saw Karkare walk into the rear courtyard and talk to someone behind the area where the platform was located in the prayer ground. It was the same place which Apte had shown to me in the morning.

  Badge Develops Cold Feet, Murder Attempt Fails

  'Karkare came up to us and told Apte "You are too late, the prayers have already started. Gandhiji has already taken his seat. I have made arrangements for one person to enter the room under the pretext of taking his photograph from behind." Apte asked me to pose as a photographer and get into the room with my hand bag". (Karkare's comment that they were late and the prayers had already started points to the possibility that the bomb explosion was to have been carried out as soon as the recitation from the Koran started, thus creating a feeling that this was part of the ongoing protest against the recital of Koran, and while the confusion lasted Gandhiji could easily be murdered. This would allow those who were not seen to be directly involved in either the blast or the murder to escape unnoticed, in this case Apte, Karkare, and the two Godse brothers).

  'I saw two or three people seated in front of the room. I immediately realised that after the murder it would be impossible for me to escape out of the room, I developed cold feet. Nathuram told me - 'Daru naka, apan sarva ithun surakshit pane baher padu shaku ashi vyavastha amhi keli ahe', 'Don't be afraid. We have made arrangements so that all of us can safely escape from here'. Nathuram, Apte and Karkare then began forcing me to enter the room and carry out my part of the act. I told them that instead of going into the room and firing on Gandhiji from the back, I would prefer to get close to him from the front and fire on him to make sure he is killed. I was able to convince Apte and Godse about the feasibility of my plan, (It was bound to get their approval. Now Badge would be seen shooting at Gandhiji and caught as his killer, Madanlal would be seen as the bomber and may or may not be caught, thus the brainwashed refugee and the mercenary would take the fall for the main conspirators, who would escape unnoticed.) I signalled Shankar to follow me and both of us went to where the taxi was parked. The rest of the gang remained in the backyard.