NEW DELHI: Mahatma Gandhi was shot by a Maratha Hindu, at about 5-10 p.m. on Friday [Jan 30]. … [He] was shot at four times while he was walking to the prayer ground. He was hit in the chest and immediately collapsed. He was removed to Birla House where he died half an hour later at 5-40 p.m. The name of the man arrested in connection with Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination is stated to be Nathuram Vinayak Godse. He is a well-educated 35-year-old Maratha Hindu.

Mahatma Gandhi came out of Birla House at 5-5 p.m. and walked towards the prayer meeting ground supporting himself on the shoulders of his two granddaughters. As he ap­­proached the platform the congregation which numbered about 500 broke into two parts leaving a passage for Mahatma Gandhi to pass.

A man probably between 30 and 35 in a khaki tunic, who was in the congregation, fired four shots from a revolver at a range of about two yards as Mahatma Gandhi was approaching. … The assailant was immediately pounced upon by some members of the congregation and seized. … It is now learnt that the alleged assassin arrived in Delhi on Thursday [Jan 29].

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2023