Man who saved Gandhiji in 1944 dead
New Delhi, Jul 20 (IBNS) : Bhiku Daji Bhilare, the man who had saved Mahatma Gandhi from an earlier attack by Nathruram Godse, four years before the assassination, died in Maharashtra's Bhilar on Wednesday, media reports said. He was 98.
According to reports, his cremation was attended by freedom fighters and legislators.
In 1944 Bhilare, then a 25-year-old Congress Seva Dal functionary, foiled one of the six assassination attempts on Mahatma Gandhi by Godse.
In interviews given to several writers that have been published in the form of small booklets, Bhilare had said, "Everyone was allowed to attend Mahatma Gandhi's prayer meetings in Panchgani. That day, his associates Usha Mehta, Pyarelal, Aruna Asaf Ali and others were present for the prayers. Godse rushed up to Gandhiji with a knife saying that he had some questions. I stopped him, twisted his hand and snatched the knife. But Gandhiji let him go."
According to records kept by Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, Godse was overpowered by Bhilare and Manishankar Purohit, proprietor of a lodge.
A year after India's independence, Godse, however, finally gunned down the Father of the Nation on January 30, 1948, at Birla House in Delhi.
Top Congress leaders, including party Vice President Rahul Gandhi condoled the death of Bhilare.
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