Mahatma Gandhi Murder Case – Brief Facts

Offences under: Section 302, 120B, 109, 114 & 115 of the Indian Penal Code

Section 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act

Section 19 of the Indian Arms Act.

Trial was held at – Special Court at Red Fort, Delhi. Special Court was constituted on May 4, 1948 under Sections 10 and 11 of the Bombay Public Security Measures Act, 1947.

Trial commenced on – June 22^nd, 1948

Cause Title – “The Crown versus Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Others”.

Judge who Tried the case - Justice Atma Charan

Examination of witness & evidence concluded on – 06^th November, 1948

Judgement of Special Court pronounced on – 10^th February, 1949

Judgement of the Special Court is divided into 27 chapters and runs into 110 pages.

Details of Accused persons and sentence awarded by the Special Court:-

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Reasons recorded by the Trial Court for Acquittal of Vinayak Savarkar :-

Prosecution case against Vinayak Savarkar rests on the evidence of the approver alone. The court noted that, “it would be unsafe to base any conclusions in the evidence of the approver as against Vinayak Savarkar. There is thus no reason to suppose that Vinayak D. Savarkar had any hand in what took place at Delhi on 20.01.1948 and 30.01.1948.”

Appeal before the High Court:-

02^nd May, 1949 - All the convicted persons filed appeals against their conviction and sentence before the East Punjab High Court at Simla.

The three judges on the special bench which decided the appeals are :- Justice A.N. Bhandari, Justice G.D. Khosla and Justtice Achhru Ram.

21^st June, 1949 - The High Court upheld the conviction for five of the accused persons and acquitted two of the accused persons i.e. Dattatraya Parchure and Shankar Kistayya.

Appellate Court- conviction and sentence:-

The accused in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Front row (L-R): Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare; 2nd row (L-R): Digambar Ramchandra Badge (obscured), Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse; 3rd row: Unidentified, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, DS Parchure; May 1948 (Photo: Alamy)

Reasons for Acquittal of Shankar Kisstaya & Dattatraya Parchure

• Reason for acquittal with respect to Shankar Kisstaya was due to insufficient material to justify the conviction on the charge of conspiracy.
• Reason for acquittal with respect of Dattatraya Parchure was that the evidence of the witnesses was unreliable and unsatisfactory and barring the unconfirmed retracted confession, which was actually involuntary, there is no other evidence regarding the complicity of Dattaraya Parchure in this case.

Some of the Findings of the High Court: -

The Court noted that conspiracy to murder Mahatama Gandhi did exist. Apte and Nathuram Godse remained the “chief organisers” throughout the plan.

Justice Achhru Ram and Justice Bhandari recommended the commutation of sentence of Gopal Godse and Madanlal Pahwa owing to their young age, but Justice Khosla disagreed on the recommendation of Justice Achhru Ram to commute the sentence of Madanlal Pahwa.

Justice Achhru Ram observed, “Both are quite young and in the bloom of their lives. Both seemed to have succumbed to influences exercised over them by stronger and more determined persons.”

Justice Khosla in his one paragraph judgement observed, “I wish, however, to disassociate myself from the recommendation for mercy made by my Learned Brother Achhru Ram J. in favour of Madanlal Pahwa. Pahwa took a very prominent part in the plan of conspiracy originally conceived.”

Justice Bhandari noted that the observations of the Special Judge against the Delhi Police was unwarranted and that, “it was impossible for any police officer, however capable and efficient he might have been, to have prevented Nathuram from committing the crime”

On the question of slackness on part of the Delhi Police, Justice Bhandari observed “The evidence on record satisfies me (a) that no opportunity was afforded to the police to explain the circumstances which prevented them from apprehending Nathuram before the 30th January and thereby saving the life of Mahatma Gandhi; (b) that Madanlal failed to supply the names of the conspirators to the police; (c) that even if those names were supplied it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the police to arrest Nathuram who was going about from place to place under assumed names and who was determined to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi even at the risk of losing his own life."

Mr. Justice Achhru Ram noted, “Before concluding 1 want to advert to some remarks made by the learned Special Judge as to the slackness shown in the investigation during the period between the 20th and the 30th January 1948 but for which. in the view of the learned Judge, the tragedy could have been prevented. I must say that I have not been able to discover any justification at all for these remarks which in my judgment were wholly uncalled for.”

Mr. Justice Khosla stated "I concur with the conclusions arrived at by my learned brothers Bhandari and Achhru Ram JJ.”

A petition for special leave to appeal to the privy council was lodged by all the five who stood convicted and sentenced by the High court – Nathuram Godse, Apte, Karkare, Pahwa and Gopal Godse and the same was declined.

After almost 75 years, a petition was filed before the Supreme Court in April 2023 alleging mistrial in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case in 1948.

A Bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on Abhinav Bharat Congress' while dismissing the petition, noted that, “It is the most misconceived petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The parties cannot walk into the Supreme Court with any pleading or with any prayer they want.”

The Unread Judgments on Gandhi's Assassination