Narayan Dattatraya Apte was a Hindu activist and enterpreneur who was executed for his role in the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

In 1932, Apte graduated from Bombay University as a Bachelor of Science. After obtaining his B.Sc., Degree, Apte accepted a teacher's job at Ahmednagar. During his stay at Ahmednagar, he was married to Mr Phadtare's daughter named Champa. He appeared for his B.T. examination and got his degree. In 1939, Apte joined the Hindu Mahasabha. While 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 considered himself an expert prognisticator when it came to reading the stars and predicting the future. His predictions that killing Gandhi would somehow magically reunify India with Pakistan and that he would live to be both old and revered throughout India proved to be inaccurate.

He worked with Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Vinayak Godse , from the city of Pune, India was a Hindutva activist and journalist, who was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with his brother Gopal Godse and six other co-conspirators, he executed a plot to assassinate Gandhi.-Early life:Nathuram Godse was born in Baramati, Pune...

 for almost six years under the Hindu Mahasabha. On 28 March, 1944 the publication of Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 daily Agrani started at Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

. Godse was its editor and Apte its manager. It bore a picture of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, revolutionary and politician. He was the proponent of liberty as the ultimate ideal. Savarkar was a poet, writer and playwright...

 on its front page. Apte was present on the spot at Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, with Godse. The prosecution described him as the organizer of the conspiracy but this was not likely since his own co-conspirators stated that Apte appeared to be more interested in fine clothes and partying with young women than in his political duties.

He was executed by hanging, simultaneously with Nathuram Godse, on 15 November 1949, at Ambala Jail.