Pune: Nathuram Vinayak Godse was hanged on November 15, 1949 for shooting Mahatma Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range on January 30, 1948. Godse, a Hindu nationalist activist from Pune, Maharashtra, and ex-member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, resented what he considered was Gandhi's partiality to India's Muslims, plotted the assassination with Narayan Apte and six others. After a trial that lasted over a year, Godse was sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. Although pleas for commutation were made by India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and by Gandhi's two sons on the grounds that a death sentence would dishonour the legacy of a man opposed to all forms of violence, Godse was hanged a week later.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948. He was shot at point-blank range by Nathuram Godse.

Gandhi was outside on the steps of a building where a prayer meeting was going to take place. He was surrounded by a part of his family and some followers when three gunshots killed him. Prior to his death, there had been five unsuccessful attempts to kill Gandhi, the first occurring in 1934.