Writes Manohar Malgonkar in his book The Men
Who Killed Gandhi:
“One of the gun-cotton slabs would be exploded by
Madanlal who, after lighting the ninety-second fuse,
would go and join the others around Gandhi, ready to
throw a grenade at him.
“When the report of the blast was heard Badge
would fire Gopal’s service revolver at Gandhi through
the ventilation-grille that he had been shown in the
morning, and Shankar, who would have managed to
worm his way close to Gandhi, would, at point blank
range, pump into him the remaining three bullets in
the chamber of Badge’s .32. Immediately after empty-ing his revolver, Badge would push
a grenade through the ventilation-
grille with the barrel of his revolver.
The revolver shots would be the sig-
nal for the other grenade-throwers
to hurl their grenades in general
direction of Gandhi. For this pur-
pose, the five grenades would be
distributed, one each to Badge,
Shankar, Karkare, Madanlal and
Gopal. Neither Apte nor Nathuram
would carry any arms, but it would
be their business to guide the opera-
tion by giving signals.”
But the plan failed—Badge did not
fire, after Madanlal had exploded
the gun-cotton slab 75 feet away
from the dais where Gandhi sat. As
Badge fled and the police caught
Madanlal, their accomplices mixed
with the crowd and escaped, with-
out using their grenades.
The Delhi Police raided two
places mentioned by Madanlal—
the Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan and
Marina Hotel in Connaught Place
where Nathuram and Apte were
staying. But, by then, both had left
Delhi. They went to Bombay via
Kanpur and Allahabad.
When caught, Madanlal said,
‘Phir Ayega’ (They will come again).
He told the police that Karkare and
the proprietor of Hindu Rashtra had
plotted the murder. Madanlal used
to work for a professor, Dr J.C.
Jain, as his books’ salesman. Dr Jain
met the home minister of Bombay,
Morarji Desai, on January 21 and told
him that Madanlal had hinted to him
that he was going to Delhi to kill Gandhi
and that a man called Karkare from Ahmadnagar
was involved in it. Savarkar’s name was also
mentioned by Jain. Morarji Desai summoned
J.D. Nagarvala, Bombay’s deputy commission-
er in charge of intelligence, and passed on the
information. Though known as an efficient offi-
cer, Nagarvala made little use of it.
After the murder attempt, the Delhi Police
deployed a few more policemen in plainclothes
at Birla House gates, but Gandhi disallowed any
frisking of people coming to his prayer meetings.
The police sent two officers to Bombay with a
copy of Madanlal’s statement in Urdu, which[CONVICTED]
MADANLAL PAHWA
Madanlal Pahwa belonged to a
small town called Pakpattan, now
in Pakistan. He had served in the
Royal Indian Navy as a wireless
operator and was discharged from
it in 1946. During the partition, he
became part of a refugee column
where he had terrible experiences.
He found shelter in the Chembur
refugee camp in Bombay and
became a book salesman. Later,
he worked in a fire-cracker factory
which also made grenades. He
made and sold grenades.
That was how he met Vishnu
Karkare, who came looking for
grenades. Madanlal went with
Karkare to Ahmadnagar with a
steel trunk filled with bombs.
In December 1947, Karkare
introduced him to Nathuram and
Apte who wanted someone who
could handle explosives. He lit an
explosive at Birla House on January
20 and was caught. Gandhi praised
his courage, comparing him to
Bhagat Singh. Released from jail
in 1964, he got married and ran
a small business in Dadar till his
death in 2000.[CONVICTED]
GOPAL GODSE
Nine years younger than his
celibate brother, Gopal was
quite the family man who
was devoted to his wife and
two daughters. Gopal joined
Military Ordnance Service in
1940 as a civilian clerk after
his matriculation. When World
War II began, he volunteered for
overseas service and was part of
PAIFORCE, a British column sent
to Iran and Iraq. He returned
to India in April 1944 and was
posted as storekeeper in the
ordnance depot at Kirkee.
Gopal brought a .38mm
Webley & Scott revolver from
abroad. On hearing of the plan
to kill Gandhi, he offered the
revolver for the mission.
He took part in the failed
attempt on Gandhi on January
20, but did not accompany
Nathuram for the next attempt.
After the assassination, he was
arrested and was sentenced
to life imprisonment. He wrote
nine books in Marathi and
English. He died on November
26, 2005.(^42) THE WEEK NOVEMBER 12, 2017
COVER STORY