The Week India — November 12, 2017

none of the senior police officers in Bombay could read.

Nagarvala gave little help to the officers from Delhi—

he said some people were trying to kidnap Gandhi, not

kill him.

When the two officers came back to Delhi on January

24, Intelligence Bureau director T.G. Sanjevi sent for

U.H. Rana, deputy inspector-general of police (CID),

Bombay, who happened to be in Delhi then. Sanjevi

gave Rana a copy of Madanlal’s full statement (with

an English translation) on January 25, and asked him

to take the report to Nagarvala for finding the people

mentioned in it. Instead of taking a flight or a direct

train to Bombay, Rana took a longer train journey via

Allahabad, where he took a dip at Triveni. Upon reach-

ing Bombay, he went to see Nagarvala and gave him

the full report. But Nagarvala still believed in the kid-

napping theory. His report reached Sanjevi a day

after the murder.

On January 24, Nathuram decided that he

would pull the trigger—he did not want to

depend on anyone. Apte and he raised a loan

of 0 10,000 overnight, flew to Delhi on January

27, and from there went to Gwalior to buy a

gun. Sadashiv Parchure, a doctor who was sec-

retary of the Hindu Mahasabha in Gwalior,

helped them get a 9mm Beretta semi-automatic

pistol for 0 300 from a man called Gangadhar

Dandwade. Returning to Delhi, they stayed in

a retiring-room at Old Delhi railway station,

where Karkare joined them. On January 29,

Nathuram visited Birla House along with Apte

and Karkare, and then practised with the pistol

in a jungle behind Birla Mandir.

On the day he was killed, Gandhi left his room

around ten past five for the evening prayer meet-

ing. Supported by his grandnieces Manu and

Abha, he walked across to the raised portion

of the lawn where 500 people waited for him.

As Gandhi raised his hand to greet the crowd,

Nathuram folded his hands, said ‘Namaste’ and

put three bullets into the Mahatma. Nathuram

was caught and beaten up. Apte and Karkare

escaped from the spot.

The legendary American reporter Vincent

Sheean writes in his book Lead, Kindly Light:

“I got a taxi and went out to Birla House in

time for the prayer meeting.... It was not yet five

Meeting

spots:

Hindu

Mahasabha

office

(above)

and

Savarkar

Sadan (top)

in Mumbai

PHOTOS: AMEY MANSABDAR

THE WEEK Š NOVEMBER 12, 2017^43