Was Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin convicted?

1. The courtroom verdict that ended a national trauma — how the conviction unfolded

The criminal process began with Godse’s immediate arrest after the assassination on 30 January 1948 and proceeded to a special trial that culminated in a murder conviction and capital sentence. Contemporary summaries and later historical overviews agree that a trial court found Godse and Narayan Apte guilty and handed down death sentences, which were subsequently upheld on appeal before the higher courts; Godse was executed in mid‑November 1949. Sources diverge on some procedural dates — for example, trial‑court sentencing is reported as February 1949 by some accounts and November 1949 by others — but the core legal outcome (conviction and execution) is constant across major narratives ^{[4] [2] [3]}.

2. Who else was punished — conspirators, acquittals, and varied sentences

The prosecution targeted several co‑accused alongside Godse; historical reporting lists Narayan Apte, Gopal Godse, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa and others in connection with the plot. Court records and reputable histories show Narayan Apte received the same capital punishment as Godse, while the remaining defendants were given prison terms of varying lengths. High‑profile names sometimes linked to the conspiracy — most notably Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in later public debate — were either not tried or were not convicted for the assassination for lack of admissible evidence, and judicial outcomes reflect that distinction rather than any single, sweeping culpability among associated political actors ^{[5] [3] [6]}.

3. Cross‑source consistency and small discrepancies — reading the record carefully

Major outlets and reference works (BBC, Britannica, India Today, university histories, and encyclopedic summaries) uniformly state the conviction and execution of Godse and Apte; differences appear mainly in dates and procedural descriptions: some sources cite trial‑court sentencing in February 1949, others in November 1949, and descriptions of the special court’s schedule and appellate timetable vary with author emphasis. These inconsistencies reflect secondary‑source synthesis choices rather than substantive disagreement about the verdict itself. Researchers should therefore rely on primary court records for precise docket chronology but can treat the conviction/execution sequence as established fact ^{[4] [3] [2] [6]}.

4. How narratives and agendas shape recounting of the conviction

Reporting of the Gandhi murder trial has been shaped by political and ideological frames over decades: nationalist retellings stress Gandhi’s martyrdom and the unequivocal application of law, while revisionist commentators sometimes emphasize alleged political dimensions or contend with broader debates about culpability within affiliated movements. These agendas influence which details—dates, ancillary defendants, or allegations about political influence—are foregrounded, though they do not alter the recorded judicial outcome. Readers should note when a source adopts an interpretive lens and cross‑check claims about secondary actors against court findings and mainstream historical summaries ^{[7] [5] [3]}.

5. The bottom line for fact‑checking: conviction confirmed, execution carried out

All reliable accounts converge on the essential fact: Nathuram Godse was convicted of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi, sentenced to death, and executed in 1949; Narayan Apte shared that fate, while other accused received prison terms and appeals to higher courts failed to overturn the central verdict. For chronological precision or contested ancillary claims, consult primary judicial records or detailed archival research; for the general factual question—“Was Gandhi’s assassin convicted?”—the answer is an unequivocal yes, supported by multiple independent sources and the post‑trial appellate record ^{[1] [4] [3]}.