Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. Godse entered a crowd of people as Gandhi headed for his evening prayers. He approached Gandhi on the pretext of touching his feet. He shot Gandhi instead, thrice, killing the Mahatma on the spot. The Beretta handgun that Godse used was an unusual weapon. Though considered to be supremely reliable, it was a rare weapon in India, as it was mostly used by Italy and other Axis Powers during World War II. The weapon was the Italian manufacturer's response to the German Walther PP. World War I saw some of history’s greatest advances in weapons technology and manufacturing. Ushering in the birth of the modern military-industrial complex, the Great War propelled the growth of weapons manufacturers across Europe and the US. Beretta was one such company. The company traced its origins to 1526, when its eponymous founder started building gun barrels for the Venetian city state. While business boomed over generations, Beretta only started producing pistols in 1915 – responding to Italy’s wartime needs. The quality and reliability of Beretta guns made them a favourite among soldiers. In the early 1930s, German Walther PP became extremely popular, impressing even the Italian army. Fearful of losing its biggest client, Beretta came up with the M1934 – a significant improvement on its previous pistol. Notably, the Beretta M1934 was a compact and light gun but packed a strong cartridge for its size. Made up of relatively few, easy-to-maintain parts, it was considered an extremely reliable side weapon. Over a million M1934s were produced over the course of the war. The gun Godse used was likely used in Abyssinia during the war. The complete history of the specific gun used to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi is hard to trace. However, from various reports, some parts of its journey can be ascertained. Having the serial number 606824, the gun was manufactured in 1934 and issued to an Italian army officer either in 1934 or early 1935. The officer carried it to Africa, during Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) under the orders of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. It was subsequently taken by a British officer, as a war trophy. Notably, while Italy successfully occupied Abyssinia from 1936 to 1940, as tensions in Europe flared between the Allies and the Axis powers, Abyssinia became a conflict zone again. Helped by British forces, Ethiopian leader Haile Sellasie was able to retake control of his country, with all hostilities ceasing by 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies. It is likely that the Beretta in question was taken from a dead/captured Italian officer during the early to mid-1940s, by a British officer probably posted with the 4th Gwalior Infantry. Godse got his hands on the gun only days before the assassination. On January 27, 1948, Nathuram Godse and his accomplice Narayan Apte alighted at the Gwalior railway station. In The Murderer, The Monarch and The Fakir, a book containing a detailed account on Gandhi's assassination plot and the subsequent investigation, the authors, Appu Esthose Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju, write that the duo arrived at Gwalior in search of a “better weapon”. At the time, Godse possessed a countrymade pistol, which are notoriously unreliable and unsafe to operate. They would ask Dattatreya Sadashiv Parchure for help. Parchure was a famous Hindu Mahasabha leader in the city and the founder of the Hindu Rashtra Sena – a militant organisation which gave arms training to its members. He promised to help Godse and Apte in their mission, seeking the assistance of Gangadhar Dandwate, an arms dealer. But securing a good gun was difficult at such short notice. After a few failures, Dandwate turned to Jagdish Goel – a 24-year-old officer in the HRS, requesting him to give him his own weapon. Goel agreed on one condition – either his gun is replaced or he was paid Rs 500 for it. He was eventually paid Rs 300, Suresh and Kotamraju write, with another Rs 200 being promised for a later date. It is unclear whether Goel was ever paid the remaining Rs 200. The gun was then loaded and tested, following which Godse set off for Delhi with Apte, late at night on January 28, reaching Delhi the next day. The investigation managed to trace the gun - but not its journey to India. After Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, the subsequent investigation led to Parchure, who was detained on February 3, 1948, and confessed to his role in the murder on February 18. However, he would later take back his confession, claiming that he was “forced to confess”. The investigators never got very far with tracing the gun. While the investigators got to Parchure and Goel, they were unable to trace the possession of the gun beyond Goel. In his book 'The Men who Killed Gandhi', Manohar Malgonkar wrote that “It is possible that Goel, by refusing to mention the name of the person who sold it (the gun) to him, was shielding him from trouble."
