Narayan Apte

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A group photo of people accused in the Mahatma Gandhi's murder case. Standing: Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge (Approver). Sitting: Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare

Narayan Dattatraya Apte was born in 1911. In 1932, he graduated from Bombay University with a Bachelor of Science. Apte accepted a teacher's job at Ahmednagar. There he was married to ChampaPhadtare. He appeared for his B.T. examination and got his degree. While Mahatma Gandhi was staying at Panchagani a group of some twenty-five young men led by Apte staged a protest against Gandhi's policies on 22 July 1944. Apte planned and executed another such demonstration before Gandhi while he stayed in the sweepers' colony in Delhi.

Apte worked with Nathuram Godse for almost 6 years under the Hindu Mahasabha. Apte was present at Gandhi's assassination, along with Godse. Apte told his wife a day before his execution "If you believe in the immortality of the soul, then you are and will remain Soubhagyavati even after my death! Move about in the society wearing your external symbols of your Soubhagya." The prosecution described him as the organizer of the conspiracy. He was executed by hanging, with Godse, on November 15, 1949, at Ambala Jail for his involvement in the assassination.