Mahatma Gandhi was targeted during his visit to Pune in 1934.

Before Nathuram Godse assassinated him on the grounds of Birla House in Delhi in 1948, there were about four attempts on Mahatma Gandhi's life, one of them in Pune 14 years earlier.

It was suspected that Mahatma Gandhi's nationwide campaign against untouchability led to the attack, but the identity of the attacker remains unknown to this date.

Believing Mahatma Gandhi was inside, attackers threw a bomb at a car during his visit to Pune on June 25, 1934. The incident took place in Vishrambaug, where he was to address a meeting.

Some people including the chief officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation and occupants of the car were injured in the attack.

Late Narhar Vishnu Gadgil, a Congress leader who became a minister in the first cabinet of independent India, describes the incident in his autobiography "Pathik".

According to him, Mahatma Gandhi set out for the meeting in time but his car was held up at the railway crossing and he reached the venue five minutes late.

"A loud explosion was heard outside the meeting hall. People inside the hall thought they were fireworks to welcome Gandhi. Later, we found that it was a bomb," Narhar Vishnu Gadgil wrote.

When Mahatma Gandhi's car arrived at the venue, Narhar Vishnu Gadgil took him to one side, embraced him and led him in.

The meeting was over in a few minutes and Mahatma Gandhi was escorted out in police security.

While boarding the railway compartment on his way back, Mahatma Gandhi told Narhar Gadgil, "If they find the assailant, tell him I have forgiven him."