Nathuram Vinayak Godse was convicted of the murder of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who died at a prayer meeting in New Delhi on January 30, 1948. The Special Court sitting in the Red Fort in Delhi found him guilty on February 10, 1949 and sentenced him to death. The East Punjab High Court at Simla upheld the conviction and sentence on June 21, 1949. He was executed at Ambala on November 15, 1949, together with Narayan Apte, a co-accused.
The case was prosecuted as a conspiracy. Nine men stood trial, a tenth became an approver, and three others were declared absconding. The proceedings, from the charge sheet to the Privy Council petition, were completed in about twenty months.
Godse was born on May 19, 1910 and grew up in Baramati, in the Pune district. He later worked in Pune as a writer and as editor of a Marathi newspaper, first called Agrani and later renamed Hindu Rashtra. By the 1940s he had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha.
Gandhi was killed on the evening of January 30, 1948 at a prayer meeting in New Delhi. Offenses connected with an incident in Delhi on January 20, 1948 also formed part of the charges against several of the accused. The case was brought against a group of men, among them Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, Gopal Godse (Nathuram's brother), Shankar Kistayya, Dattatraya Parchure and Digambar Badge, together with the Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
The government set up a Special Court at the Red Fort on May 4, 1948 under sections 10 and 11 of the Bombay Public Security Measures Act, 1947, as extended to Delhi. A single judge presided. The case was titled The Crown versus Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Others. The prosecution was led by the Advocate General of Bombay. The charge sheet was filed on May 27, 1948 against eleven accused, three of whom were declared absconding. The Supreme Court of India later recorded that nine accused were tried.
The trial began on June 22, 1948. The prosecution called 149 witnesses. The defense called none. Evidence closed on November 6, 1948.
The accused were charged with murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, with criminal conspiracy under section 120B, with abetment and attempt-related offenses under sections 109, 114 and 115, and with further offenses under two other statutes. All pleaded not guilty. On June 21, 1948 Digambar Badge was granted a pardon on condition that he gave evidence, and he appeared as an approver.
The Special Judge delivered judgment on February 10, 1949. Godse was found guilty of murder under section 302 and of criminal conspiracy to commit murder under section 120B read with section 302. He was also convicted of further offenses under two other statutes, and of an offense under section 115 read with section 302. On the section 302 count he was sentenced to death. The terms of rigorous imprisonment on the other counts, from two to seven years, were to run concurrently. The court held that the death sentences did not require confirmation by the High Court.
Narayan Apte was also sentenced to death. Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa and Gopal Godse were sentenced to transportation for life, as were Shankar Kistayya and Dattatraya Parchure. Seven of the nine tried were thus convicted. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was acquitted. The court observed that the case against him rested on the approver's evidence alone and held that it would not be safe to convict on that evidence without further support. Digambar Badge, the approver, was not tried.
Appeals were filed on May 2, 1949 and were heard at Simla by a bench of three judges. The High Court gave judgment on June 21, 1949. It upheld the convictions of five of the seven: Godse, Apte, Karkare, Pahwa and Gopal Godse. It acquitted Shankar Kistayya and Dattatraya Parchure. It found that a conspiracy existed and that Apte and Godse were its chief organizers.
Godse did not challenge his own conviction for murder or his death sentence. He appealed only against the finding of conspiracy as it touched the other accused. Two of the judges recommended that the sentences of Madanlal Pahwa and Gopal Godse be considered for commutation; the third disagreed as to Pahwa. The death sentences on Godse and Apte stood.
Godse, Apte, Karkare, Pahwa and Gopal Godse petitioned the Privy Council for special leave to appeal. Special leave was refused without the Crown being called upon to reply. The decision was given in October 1949, a few weeks before the executions. Petitions for mercy on behalf of Godse and Apte were rejected by the Governor-General in Council.
Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were executed at Ambala on November 15, 1949. Karkare, Pahwa and Gopal Godse were released from custody in October 1964.
The Special Court was a creature of statute. The Bombay Public Security Measures Act, 1947 allowed a government to appoint a special judge for particular offenses, and the provisions were extended to Delhi for this case. Because the judge held that the Act, as applied to Delhi, did not require confirmation of a death sentence, the appeals went directly to the High Court. That appeal went to the East Punjab High Court, which sat at Simla in the former Viceregal Residence.
Above the High Court, final appeals from India still lay to the Privy Council in London in the period of this case. The Supreme Court of India came into existence on January 26, 1950, after the executions. In January 2018 a petition filed before the Supreme Court argued that, for this reason, the trial had never reached legal finality.
Two sets of findings were revisited later. The Government of India appointed a commission of inquiry under a retired judge, known as the Kapur Commission, which reported on September 30, 1969 and considered the wider conspiracy, including the role of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had died in 1966. In March 2018 the Supreme Court dismissed a special leave petition that asked for the case to be reopened and for the commission's findings on Savarkar to be reviewed. The Court said that the commission's report was not binding, that it did not overturn the acquittal, and that the new material offered did not justify a fresh investigation.
The High Court's acquittal of Shankar Kistayya and Dattatraya Parchure in June 1949 left five of the seven convictions in place.
May 19, 1910: Nathuram Vinayak Godse is born.
January 20, 1948: an incident in Delhi that later formed part of the charges.
January 30, 1948: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi dies at a prayer meeting in New Delhi.
May 4, 1948: the Special Court at the Red Fort is constituted.
May 27, 1948: charge sheet filed against eleven accused.
June 21, 1948: Digambar Badge is pardoned as approver.
June 22, 1948: trial begins.
November 6, 1948: evidence closes.
February 10, 1949: judgment; Godse and Apte sentenced to death; Savarkar acquitted.
May 2, 1949: appeals filed at Simla.
June 21, 1949: East Punjab High Court judgment.
October 1949: Privy Council refuses special leave.
November 15, 1949: Godse and Apte executed at Ambala.
October 1964: Karkare, Pahwa and Gopal Godse released.
September 30, 1969: Kapur Commission reports.
March 28, 2018: Supreme Court dismisses petition to reopen the case.