NATHURAM GODSE

• The brothers were the sons of a village postmaster. Nathuram joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 22 after his small cloth business failed. A few years later, he moved to Pune and became secretary of the local branch of the Hindu Mahasabha
• Nathuram became part of the civil disobedience movement in Hyderabad, where Hindus complained of being deprived of their rights by the government of the Nizam
• He was arrested for his participation in the protests and imprisoned for some time.
• It was during his stay in Pune that Nathruam met Apte, who was a school teacher. Together, Nathuram and Apte founded a Marathi daily newspaper called Agrani.
• Nathuram used the paper as a platform to voice his disagreements with Gandhi and his outreach to Indian Muslims
• He was warned several times by the government for writing incendiary articles
• Nathuram’s younger brother, Gopal, worked with the Hindu Mahasabha for some time, but then joined the army as a member of the civilian personnel
•  He was later appointed a storekeeper of the Motor Transport Spares Sub-Depot at Kirkee, a military station near Pune.
• Gopal was particularly inspired by Vinayak Savarkar and his demand for dividing India
• Although Nathuram urged him to not participate in the planning of Gandhi’s murder, he decided to throw in his lot with the plan anyway

• The Beretta handgun that Godse used was an unusual weapon. Though considered to be supremely reliable, it was a rare weapon in India, as it was mostly used by Italy and other Axis Powers during World War II.
• The company traced its origins to 1526, when its eponymous founder started building gun barrels for the Venetian city state
• Notably, the Beretta M1934 was a compact and light gun but packed a strong cartridge for its size
• Made up of relatively few, easy-to-maintain parts, it was considered an extremely reliable side weapon
• Over a million M1934s were produced over the course of the war
• The complete history of the specific gun used to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi is hard to trace
• However, from various reports, some parts of its journey can be ascertained. Having the serial number 606824, the gun was manufactured in 1934 and issued to an Italian army officer either in 1934 or early 1935
• The officer carried it to Africa, during Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) under the orders of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

• The trial began in May 1948 at a special court set up in Delhi’s Red Fort. The monument had earlier been the venue for the trials of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar who was deported to Burma and, around nine decades later, of the members of the Indian National Army
• The trial took place before Special Judge Atma Charan, a senior member of the judicial branch of the Indian Civil Service
•  The prosecution was led by CK Daphtary, then Advocate General of Bombay, who later became Solicitor General of India, and then the Attorney General for India.
• Godse along with other accused, including Narayan Apte and Vinayak Savarkar, were allowed to take the help of counsel of their choice
• In the book "
• ‘Why They Killed Gandhi: Unmasking the Ideology and the Conspiracy’, Ashok Kumar Pandey wrote, “the law took its course wherein he (Godse) was supplied with legal aid at government expense, and most of his demands during his stay in jail were fulfilled.
• Between June and November 1948, the special court heard 149 witnesses. The prosecution brought on record 404 documentary exhibits and 80 material exhibits
• The judgment was pronounced on February 10, 1949. Judge Atma Charan convicted Godse, Apte, and five others of the crime. Both Godse and Apte were sentenced to death. Savarkar was acquitted
• The judge also announced that the convicts could file an appeal against the order. Four days later, all of them filed their appeals in the Punjab High Court, which was then known as the East Punjab High Court, and located in Shimla
• Interestingly, instead of challenging the conviction, Godse’s appeal objected to the court’s finding that he wasn’t the only one involved in Gandhi’s murder and there was a larger conspiracy to kill him.
• The appeals were heard by a Bench that including Justice Khosla, Justice A N Bhandari, and Justice Achhru Ram. During the proceedings, Godse refused to be represented by a lawyer and asked to be allowed to argue his appeal himself. The court accepted his request
• The assassin didn’t repent his crime and used the opportunity to “exhibit himself as a fearless patriot and a passionate protagonist of Hindu ideology”
• He had remained completely unrepentant of his atrocious crime, and whether out of a deep conviction in his beliefs or merely in order to make a last public apology, he had sought this opportunity of displaying his talents before he dissolved into oblivion-Justice Khosla
• The Bench gave its verdict on June 21, 1949. It confirmed the findings and sentences of the lower court except in the cases of Dattatraya Parchure and Shankar Kistayya, who were acquitted of all charges
• The convicts also filed a petition for special leave to appeal to the Privy Council, which was the highest court in India during British rule, and was replaced by the Supreme Court in 1950. However, the petition was rejected
• The hanging of Godse and Apte became inevitable after the Governor-General of India rejected their mercy petitions
• Godse’s mercy petition was filed by his parents, not him. Both men were hanged on November 15, 1949, in Ambala jail