Lets Kill Gandhi
Page 109
'I took both mine and Shankar's revolvers and hand grenades and wrapped them in a towel and put them inside the handbag I was carrying. I placed the handbag under the backseat of the taxi. I warned Shankar not to do anything till I gave the signal. Then I returned to the others. I had put my hands in the side pockets of my upper garment so that they thought I was carrying my revolver and hand grenade in my shirt pocket. I told Godse and Apte that I was ready. Apte asked me once again - 'Bandobhau, taiyar ahaat na?' "Bandopant, are you ready?' I said 'hoy', 'Yes' and proceeded to take my position amongst the front rows of the audience in the prayer ground, Shankar was also with me.
'I saw Apte going up to Madanlal and placing his hand on Madanlal's back and tell him - 'Chalo', 'come'. I saw Madanlal proceeding towards the spot where he had placed the gun cotton bomb on the wall. Shankar and I went to the Prarthana Sabha. Karkare was behind us. I saw that immediately in front of Gandhiji twenty to thirty women and children were sitting. I took up a position approximately fifteen steps towards the right of Gandhiji. Shankar and Karkare took up positions, a few steps to my right. Two or three minutes later we heard a loud explosion. I saw smoke emanating from the direction of the blast. Four or five men rushed towards the blast site. Gandhiji calmed the audience with folded arms. After a few minutes I saw that Madanlal had been caught. The audience had remained calmly seated. I also saw that after catching Madanlal they took him to the police camp outside the main gate of Birla House. Then I saw four or five men come out of the tent, they looked like policemen, I saw them rushing towards me. I was scared, I feared that they were bringing Madanlal to point out his accomplices. I turned and hid my face from them. After a few moments when I again glanced in the direction of the policemen, I saw that the people were moving out of the prayer grounds. I signalled Shankar to come with me; we mingled with the crowd of people and began moving towards the gate.
After coming out of Birla House, we got into a tonga and reached the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan. I did not see Nathuram Godse, Apte or Gopal at the prayer grounds. I ordered Shankar to immediately go into the forest behind the Mahasabha Bhavan and dispose off the hand grenades there. As soon as Shankar left, I started packing my bedding and other luggage to make good our escape from Delhi. Apte and the Godse brothers reached the Mahasabha Bhavan just then. Apte asked me - 'Bandobhau, kay zala?' 'Bandobhau, what happened?' I was mad at them, I had seen through their plan of leaving me holding the smoking gun and getting away scot-free. I lost my temper and shouted at them. I told them to get lost and not bother to contact me ever in the future.
'By then Shankar had returned, I told him to pick up our luggage. We came out of the Mahasabha Bhavan and took a tonga to the New Delhi Station. I bought two third class tickets for Bombay. I saw some police constables patrolling the station. I panicked. We walked out, took another tonga and went to the Old Delhi Station. There we boarded the train that left for Bombay at 9.30 or 10.00 p.m., we reached Kalyan Station at 11.30 a.m. on 22nd January. We caught a train for Poona from Kalyan and reached Poona at 7.30 p.m. on the same day.
'I was arrested from my residence in Poona on 31 January 1948 early in the morning at approximately 5.00 or 5.30 a.m.'
Badge identified the explosives and bombs recovered from the forest behind the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan and the hand grenade recovered from Madanlal, in court.
On being asked as to where he had procured the hand grenades and explosives from, Badge replied, 'I get them from the armoury at Kirkee, I buy them from the employees working (there). But I don't know who makes these.' Badge also informed the court that the office of Hindu Rashtra in Poona was housed in a temporary shed. Godse and Apte had erected a camp office for themselves just outside the Hindu Rashtra Press. The periodical was previously named Dainik Agranee and then it was rechristened Hindu Rashtra.
Question - 'Why did you assume false identities?'
Badge - 'Karkare suggested that we may require calling out to one another during the operation. If we were to use our real names, we could be identified and arrested, and so he suggested that we should assume false names.' Badge went on to inform the court that Apte was a dedicated volunteer of the Hindu Mahasabha and Godse was one of its important leaders. He used to take me to all the annual conventions of the Mahasabha. I used to collect funds for the Mahasabha and enrol members. I agreed to accompany them from Bombay to Delhi due to several reasons. One was that I had known Godse and Apte for a long time. Second, we were all members of one organisation, the Hindu Mahasabha. The third reason was that I felt obligated to them since Godse and Apte used to give me financial help from time to time to run my weapons business. I believed that Tatyarao, Savarkar, had ordered us and we had to obey his command at any cost. So I agreed to come with them to Delhi. Ever since I have come in touch with Godse and Apte, I have always obeyed their commands.'
APPENDIX V
INSCRIPTION ON THE MURDER WEAPON
On the Barrel
P. Beretta? C.L.9 Coroto-M°? 1934 Brevettato
Gardone VT. 1937-XV
On the Hilt
The Monogram PB
Sr. No. 606824
APPENDIX VI
THE ESTABLISHMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH MAHATMA GANDHI'S MURDER
Delhi:
Birla House was acquired, after paying the market value, by the Government of India from the Birla family in the late Sixties and converted into Gandhi Smriti. K.K. Birla sold it to the government after extensive negotiations in 1966. The Government of India paid Rs.5.4 million and also gave seven acres of prime land in Delhi as compensation. It was due to the efforts and pressure put by Shashi Bhushan, Krishna Kant, who later became the vice-president of India, Mohan Dharia and Chandrashekhar who for a brief period was the prime minister, that the Birla House was finally acquired. Eventually, Shashi Bhushan sat on a dharna to hasten the process of acquiring it. K.K. Birla drove a hard bargain. According to one version, while deciding the sale price of the family mansion, he even calculated the value of the fruit bearing trees and all the saplings that had been planted to the price tag. Thus it was a generously profitable deal by any consideration. Unfortunately, in recent years a misconception has gained currency that the Birlas magnanimously donated their family home, so that it could be converted into a monument to Mahatma Gandhi. This is not so.
Many changes have been made to Birla House; successive caretakers have recklessly added structures in recent times to this historic monument in their quest for personal glory. Instead of preserving history they have successfully obliterated it. Gandhi Smriti today is distinctly different from the way it was when Gandhi livedout his last days there from September 1947 till 30 January 1948.Visitors today do not get a feel of the historic significance of Birla House. All signs of the events that took place in this place during the month of January 1948 and especially on 20th and 30th January havebeen erased.
On a visit to Memphis, I went to see the motel where Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered. The motel has been preserved exactly the way it was at the time of Dr. King's murder. Even the cars in its parking lot are replicas of the ones that were parked there on that fateful day. Albuquerque Road is now Tees January Marg. The servant's quarters, at the rear are still there and so is the round about behind the erstwhile Birla House, where them urderers had parked the taxi which brought them to Birla House on the evening of 20 January 1948. The taxi is today owned by avintage car enthusiast in Lucknow. It is wrongly called the 'killercar'. Various Gandhi museums have on several occasions appealed to the owner to present the car to them, but their appeals have gone unheeded.
Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan, I think has been enlarged and expanded; I have not tried to find out its current status.
Marina Hotel on Connaught Circus now houses some offices.
I have no idea about the fate of the Frontier Hotel and the Sharif Hotel. They might have been turned into offices or shops or made way for development.
The Regal Cinema still stands on a rapidly changing Connaught Circus. Ho
w long it will remain, only God knows.
The Waiting Rooms at the Old Delhi Railway Station may still exist. I don't think the Old Delhi Station has been drastically renovated. The murderers Godse, Apte and Karkare stayed in the 1st Class Waiting Room on the night of the 29th and left to murder Gandhi from the 2nd Class Waiting Room in the afternoon of 30 January 1948.
I have no idea if the structure housing the Special Court, and the barracks, which were converted in to a specially notified prison to hold the accused during the Gandhi murder trial, in the historic precincts of the Red Fort, survive. Fortunately, the Red Fort does.
Raj Ghat has changed many a times and now does not resemble the humble cremation ground of a simple man.
Poona, now known as Pune
495 Shanvar Peth where the Hindu Rashtra Press and the office of Agrani was located were attacked by a violent mob in the wake of Gandhi's murder. The press and office were vandalised and burned down. I am not sure if the Godse or Apte family ever reclaimed it.
In the early seventies, I visited Gopal Godse's home with my parents and grandmother. I think it still survives. Gopal built a shrine and has placed what he claims were the ashes of his brother Nathuram Godse in it. On Nathuram's death anniversary a band of admirers gathers to worship the murderer, whom they consider a martyr.
Badge's Shastra Bhandar at 300 Narayan Peth has disappeared. It was attacked and looted in the aftermath of Gandhi's murder.
Narayan Apte's family home Anandashram was situated at 22 Budhwar Peth. I have no idea whether it exists. If it does, does it belong to the Aptes? I have not tried to find out.
Uksan
One does not know if Godse's descendants still own their ancestral property in Uksan. Gopal Godse had buried his military issue revolver in the compound of his ancestral home. He retrieved it and carried it with him to Delhi in time for the murder attempt on 20 January 1948. Gopal Godse was arrested from Uksan, where he had taken refuge to avoid the fury of the mob hell bent on lynching him after the murder.
Ahmednagar, which is now popularly called Nagar
Vishnu Karkare's Deccan Guest House still stands in the Pardeshi Aali in Kapda Bazaar area of Ahmednagar.
Sholapur:
After his acquittal Shankar Kistayya disappeared into obscurity. His last known address was Yelamma Peth, Sholapur.
Gwalior:
Dr. Sadashiv Parchure lived in his joint family home, Parchure Vada on the Station Road in Gwalior. In the seventies or eighties, the late Madhur Valluri interviewed a terminally ill Parchure at the Parchure Vada. Parchure was acquitted because of a clever lawyer and a lackadaisical prosecution by the high court. Parchure lived here till his end denying his involvement in the Gandhi murder conspiracy. Most probably Parchure Vada still exists and is owned by Parchure's descendants.
Bombay, now known as Mumbai
Sea Green South and Sea Green North Hotels still exist. They are still hotels bearing the same names and are situated on the scenic Marine Drive.
Pyrke's Apollo Hotel on the junction of Landsdowne Road and Colaba Causeway a stone's throw away from Regal Cinema is still there.
Arya Patheekashram situated in the area adjoining Sandhurst Bridge, is listed in the BMC's Guide to Bombay of 1962, as situated on Vallabhbhai Patel Road. It has since disappeared.
Elphinstonee Hotel on Gunbow Street off Hornby Road, which are now named Rustam Sidhwa Marg and Dadabhai Naoroji Road respectively, was also listed in the BMC Guide to Bombay 1962. I got its number from MTNL Directory Inquiries. When I called the number, I was told that I had reached the Residency Hotel, they had no idea about any Elphinstonee Hotel. Its sister concern the Elphinstonee Annexe Hotel on Carnac Road has also disappeared.
Hindu Mahasabha office is located in Parel above the Damodar Hall. It was referred to in the court records, as being in Dadar but in those days there was not much difference between Dadar and Parel. The Hindu Mahasabha office in Parel is situated on the first floor. In the court's records it is mentioned that the accused Apte and approver Badge met each other on the staircase leading to the Hindu Mahasabha Office, so it must be this one. In the investigation reports the police claim to have put the Parel office of Hindu Mahasabha under surveillance after the failed attempt on 20th January, but by then the conspirators had flown the coop.
Mota Mandir in Bhuleshwar still survives. It was recently in the news because of a dispute between its trustees and some shopkeepers and warehouse owners who are tenants. I don't know if descendants of Dada Maharaj and Dixit Maharaj still live there.
Savarkar Sadan was built by VD. Savarkar in 1938. It is situated a building away from Balmohan Vidyamandir in the lane now named Dr. Madhukar B. Raut Marg. This is the first left turn while going towards Shivaji Park from Shiv Sena Bhavan. V.D. Savarkar's son lives there. He now owns only l/3rd of his father's home; the other two thirds are owned by two other families, one of them my acquaintance. While looking for an office for Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, this acquaintance offered to let me temporarily use a ground floor room as an office. It would have led to an ironic address, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation at Savarkar Sadan.
It is sad that although Savarkar is venerated by many, none of his worshippers ever thought of preserving his home.
The CID Headquarters from where Nagarvala ran his investigation and where all the accused, accept Parchure, were held in custody, stands in the Police Headquarters Campus opposite Crawford Market which is now named Mahatma Jyotiba Fule Market. It is said that after the Gandhi murder trial, Badge, the approver, was allotted a tenement in the campus, where he lived till his death.
The Presidency Magistrate's Court still functions from the same building. It was in this court that many statements of witnesses were recorded and identification parades carried out. The Presidency Magistrate's Court is popularly called Qilla Court.
Madanlal Pahwa, after his release settled in Bombay. It is believed that he lived somewhere in Dadar. There are no records of where he lived, or if he left behind any progeny.
On 17th January and 27 January 1948, Apte and Godse boarded the Air India flight to Delhi from the Airport gate near the Military Camp in Kalina. In those days, passengers boarded flights from here. For many years the area was called 'Old Airport'.
INDEX
9 mm Beretta
Abdullah, Sheikh
Abha,
Afzalpurkar, Ganpatrao
Aga Khan Palace
Agranee
Ahmed, Shamsuddin
Ahmednagar
Albuquerque Road
Alexander, Albert V.
All India Congress Committee(AICC)
Ambedkar
Amchekar, Shantaram A.
Amrit Bazar Patrika
Apollo Hotel
Apte, Champutai
Apte, Narayan Dattatreya
Arya Pathik Ashram
Atal, R.B.
Atmacharan,
Attlee, Sir Clement
Auchinleck, Lord
Aurangzeb
Ayyangar, Gopalaswamy
Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam
Badge, Digamber Ramchandra
Bajaj, Jamnalal
Bakshi, Chandrakant
Balkishen
Bandobhau
Bappa, Thakker
Bhargava, Gopichand
Bhilare Guruji
Birla House
Birla, G.D.
Bombay
Bose, Netaji Subhas Chandra
Brown, Oscar H.
Cabinet Mission
Central Constituent Assembly
Chakravarty, Dr. Amiya
Chand, Kishen
Chishti, Khwaja Moinuddin
Chitpavan Brahmin
Choturam
Chowdhary, Nuruddin
Churchill, Sir Winston
Civil Disobedience
Congress Working Committee
Congress
Congress Working Committee(CWC)
Constituent Assembly
Cotton Exchange
Building
Cripps, Sir Stafford
Dada Maharaj
Dandi March
David, A.
Deccan Guest House
Desai, Mahadev
Desai, Morarji
Deulkar, N.Y
Devi, Sulochana
Dhingra, Madanlal
Dixit Maharaj
Dube, Gaya Prasad
Dutta, Kamini Kumar
East Bengal
Elphinstone Annexe Hotel
Elphinstone Hotel
Ferguson College
First War of Independence
Free India Society
Frontier Hindu Hotel
Gadgil, Anna
Gandhi National Museum
Gandhi, Devdas
Gandhi, Harilal
Gandhi, Jaisukhlal
Gandhi, Kanti
Gandhi, Mahatma
Gandhi, Manilal
Gariba
Ghosh, Prafulla Chandra
Gilder, M.D.D.
Godse, Gopal Vinayak
Godse, Nathuram Vinayak
Godse, Sindhutai
Goel, Jagdish Prasad
Gupta, Satish
Gurtu, Raosaheb
Gwalior
Haldipur, B.A.
Harijan Colony