How Did Nathuram Godse Die? People are curious to know more about the trial that he faced.
Nathuram Godse was a Hindu nationalist who killed Mahatma Gandhi, the Leader of the Indian independence movement.
On January 30, 1948, he shot Gandhi three times in the chest at point-blank range at a multi-faith prayer service at Birla House in New Delhi. Godse belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha political party.
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He was grabbed and detained by Herbert Reiner Jr., a vice-consul at the new American embassy in Delhi who was also present, shortly after Mahatma Gandhi had fallen from the deadly gunfire at the prayer gathering; finally, Godse was brought away by the Police.
How Did Nathuram Godse Die? Death Cause Explained
On November 15, 1949, Nathuram Godse was executed by hanging. On January 30, 1948, he was condemned to death for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi, the Leader of the Indian independence struggle.
Godse was tried before the Punjab High Court at Shimla’s Peterhoff. He was condemned to death on November 8, 1949.
Nathuram Godse Mughsot (source: BBC)
Although Gandhi’s two sons, Manilal Gandhi and Ramdas Gandhi, made commutation requests, they were denied by India’s prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, deputy prime minister Vallabhbhai Patel.
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Millions of Indians grieved Gandhi’s death, and the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were briefly outlawed.
The RSS has constantly denied any link to Godse. Godse “left RSS in the mid-1930s,” according to the report.
Nathuram Godse’s brother Gopal Godse, on the other hand, maintained that all of the Godse brothers were RSS members at the time of the assassination and blamed the RSS for disowning them.
Other Godse family members have also disputed that he ever left the RSS. “Until his death, he was a boudhik karyawah.”
Nathuram Godse Trial And Appeal Explored
The trial began in May 1948 in the Red Fort Special Court in Delhi. The monument had previously served as the site of trials for the final Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was banished to Burma and soldiers of the Indian National Army roughly nine decades later.
The trial was held before Special Judge Atma Charan, a senior member of the Indian Civil Service’s judicial branch.
CK Daphtary, then Advocate General of Bombay, became Solicitor General of India and, eventually, the Attorney General of India headed the prosecution.
Nathuram Godse during his Trial (source: scroll)
Godse and the other accused, including Narayan Apte and Vinayak Savarkar, were permitted to consult with counsel of their choosing.
According to Ashok Kumar Pandey in his book ‘Why They Killed Gandhi: Unmasking the Ideology and the Conspiracy,’ “the law took its course wherein he (Godse) was furnished with legal counsel at government cost most of his demands during his term in jail were satisfied.”
According to Pandey, Godse confirmed that everyone in jail had been cordial to him on the second day of the trial.
The special court heard 149 witnesses between June and November 1948. The prosecution introduced 404 documentary exhibits and 80 material exhibits into evidence.
During the trial, the essential witness for the prosecution, according to Justice G D Khosla, who was part of the three-judge Bench at Punjab High Court that heard the pleas of Godse and others, was Digambar Badge.
