Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who believed Gandhi's policies favored Muslims at India's expense, was executed by hanging alongside fellow conspirator Narayan Apte at Ambala Central Jail in Punjab. The execution, ordered despite appeals from some of Gandhi's own family members opposed to capital punishment, closed the legal chapter on one of the twentieth century's most consequential assassinations.
Godse shot Gandhi three times at point-blank range during an evening prayer meeting in New Delhi on January 30, 1948, then made no attempt to flee, allowing himself to be seized by bystanders. He was a former member of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha who viewed Gandhi's tolerance toward Muslims, particularly his stance during the partition of India, as a betrayal of Hindu interests.
His trial became a public reckoning with the violent currents that partition had unleashed. Godse used the courtroom as a platform, delivering a lengthy political statement defending the killing as a patriotic act, a speech that was banned from publication in India for decades out of fear it might inspire imitators.
Even some of Gandhi's sons, Manilal among them, petitioned for clemency, arguing that their father's own philosophy of nonviolence and forgiveness demanded mercy for his killer. The courts and government rejected the appeals. Godse and Apte were hanged before dawn on November 15, 1949 in most historical accounts, though the sentence and final judicial proceedings closed in early November, marking the formal end of the case against Gandhi's murderers.