Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, shoots Mohandas Gandhi at a prayer meeting in New Delhi five months after independence and partition. The killing shocks India and leads to a temporary ban on the RSS.
Contested history
Consensus: Godse fired the shots on 30 January 1948; he and Narayan Apte were hanged in 1949 after a trial that convicted several co-conspirators.
Godse and a small group of conspirators planned itEstablished
Trial evidence and Godse's own courtroom statement laid out the plot and his motive.
V. D. Savarkar directed the conspiracyDebated
The court acquitted Savarkar in 1949, but the 1969 Kapur Commission found the facts pointed to him and his circle; he had died in 1966.
Police failures let it happenEstablished
A bomb attempt at the same prayer meeting ten days earlier gave warning, and the Kapur Commission faulted the follow-up investigation.
A second gunman fired a fourth bulletUnsupported
India's Supreme Court dismissed a 2018 petition for a new probe after its adviser found no basis for the claim.