The day the Mahatma was killed

It was yet another day for KD Madan, a sound engineer at All India Radio. He was there at the Birla House at 5, Albuquerque Road ( now 5,Tees January Marg) at 4 pm with all his recording machines to record the prayer meeting of Bapu. AIR used to broadcast the prayer meetings later at 8.30 in the evening. Madan was really fond of bhajans that were sung at Bapu's prayer meetings. Therefore, he had not missed the prayer meetings ever since they began in  September,1947.

Advertisement

For journalist Dev Dutt, then a student of Delhi University, attending Bapu's prayer meeting daily was an integral part of life. After attending college, he was also there at Birla House. It was his daily routine. 

Notwithstanding the fact that it is more than six decades when on the fateful day of chilly January 30 when Bapu fell to senseless bullets of Nathuram Godse, every moment of that dark day is indelibly etched on their minds.

 “When Gandhi ji came out for prayer it was 5.16 pm in my watch. Though it is said that he was shot at 5.17. Therefore, I have to accept that it must be around 5.10 pm when came to the prayer venue. He was late as Sardar Patel came to see him”, recounts Madan, adding, “Godse approached Gandhi on the way to the prayer meeting and bowed. A girl accompanying Gandhi told Godse, "Please, Bapu is already late" and tried to put him off, but Godse pushed her aside and shot Gandhi three times at point-blank range in the chest with a .38 Beretta semi-automatic pistol.” He  points at the exact spot where Bapu was shot at. The Birla House is now known as Gandhi Smriti.

 Extremely reluctant to talk about Godse, Dev Dutt says, “He was a sturdy- looking man and was wearing khaki clothes. While I did not see him shooting Bapu, I saw when cops and others nabbed him,” adding, “During the prayer meeting, Bapu would speak on various issues. Journalists who attended the meeting used to ask questions.”

Madan reecalls, “I developed such contempt for Godse that when newspapers carried reports with his name, I avoided reading those. I still do not know as to how cops came to Birla House so soon after the gory incident as Gandhiji had instructed that no policemen should be in the vicinit.”

Perhaps Madan did not know that  Jaswant Singh, DSP, Parliament Police station, and Dasondha Singh, SHO of the Tughlaq Road police station, were right at the gate of Birla House when Godse shot Bapu. Since the Tughlaq Road Police station was part of the Parliament police station then, both Jaswant Singh and Dasondha Singh were at Birla House to see if all was well. They reached there on their  Mahindra jeep that the Delhi police used for patrolling. Delhi-based CA, Sanjeev Choudhry, the grandson of Jaswant Singh, told us that both Jaswant Singh and Dasondha Singh had reached Birla House. Though Gandhi’s assassination took place at 5.17 pm, the FIR was written at  9.45 pm, on the basis of the eye-witness account of Nand Lal Mehta.  Mehta, a resident of M-56, Connaught Place, told the police, “Apart from us, women from the Birla household and two to three members of the staff were also present. Having crossed the garden, the Mahatma climbed the concrete steps towards the prayer place. People were standing on both the sides and approximately three feet of vacant space was left for the Mahatma to pass through. As per the custom, the Mahatma greeted the people with folded hands. He had barely covered six or seven steps when a person whose name I learnt later as Narayan Vinayak Godse, a resident of Poona, stepped closer and fired three shots from a pistol at the Mahatma from barely two to three feet, which hit the Mahatma in his stomach and chest and blood started flowing. Mahatmaji fell backwards, uttering ‘Ram-Ram’. 

The assailant was apprehended on the spot with the weapon. The Mahatma was carried away in an unconscious state towards the residential unit of the Birla House, where he passed away instantly and the police took away the assailant.” According to Madan, Nand Lal Mehta, a Gujarati, had strong Congress leanings. He attended Bapu's prayers without fail. He moved to Ahmedabad in 1980 and died there. 

The writer is a  freelance journalist.