Fact Check: Is Nathuram Godse's ashes still kept at Pune?

Godse assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948.

According to a Twitter user, "Nathuram ji's ashes are still kept at Hindu Mahasabha headquarters at Pune. It was his last wish to be disposed of in the river Sindhu, only when she flows back again freely in Akhand Bharat (sic)."

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Fact Check

The claim is true.

NewsMeter ran a keyword search that led to a report published by Amar Ujala on 30 January 2019.

It said Godse's ashes have not been discarded in the river till date but kept safe in a room in a building located in the Shivaji Nagar area of Pune. Apart from Godse's ashes, some of his clothes and hand-written notes are also kept in the room.

Another report by Patrika from 31 January 2020 also said that Godse's ashes have not been flown into the river but have been kept safe in a silver box in a building located in Shivaji Nagar, Pune. In an interview, Godse's relatives said his body was not handed over to them after he was hanged. The government cremated him on the banks of the Ghaggar river, put his ashes in a box, and handed it over to them.

The Indian Express, in an article from 31 January 2015 titled "Retracing Nathuram Godse's journey", said, "In a building that houses real estate firms, an advocate's office and an insurance broker service, in a room that seems more at ease with spreadsheets and blueprints than yellowing pages of history, is a shrine to the man who killed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A silver urn holds the ashes of Nathuram Godse, some of his clothes and handwritten notes are preserved in a glass case, and on an adjacent table is his portrait, lean and spare, his eyes calm."

We also found a video on YouTube channel 'Grain for Brain' published on 7 May 2021. According to the video, even after 72 years of Nathuram Godse's death, his ashes are still preserved at Shivaji Nagar in Pune. His last wish was that he wanted his ashes to be released only when the Sindhu river flows back again freely in Akhand Bharat.

Lastly, we found an image on Reddit of a page from the book 'Why I assassinated Gandhi'. Titled "The Will" it is Godse's will that he left in the form of a letter addressed to his brother Dattatraya. There he requests that his ashes "be sunk in the Holy Sindhu river when she flows freely under the aegis of the flag of Hindusthan".

According to Goodreads, 'Why I assassinated Gandhi' contains the original statement given by Nathuram Godse. It is written by his brother Gopal Godse and takes us through Gandhi's assassination till the day Godse was hanged.

It is therefore evident that the claim made through the viral post is true. Nathuram Godse's ashes have been preserved at Shivaji Nagar in Pune.