Mohan Ranade

Mohan Ranade (born Manohar Apte; 25 December 1930 – 25 June 2019) was an Indian independence activist. He participated in the Goan independence movement, and spent fourteen years in Caxias prison for the premeditated murder of a Goan policeman named Custodio Fernandes.

Early life Ranade was born as Manohar Apte, on 25 December 1930

Ranade joined the militant organization, Azad Gomantak Dal in 1953. As a member of the organization, he was involved in the annexation of Silvassa in 1954 and then entered Goa illegally again.

He was incarcerated at the Caxias prison near Lisbon where he was kept in solitary confinement for the first six years. He was released in January 1969, more than seven years after the Indian annexation of Goa in December 1961, and having served almost fourteen years in prison. The intervention of C. N. Annadurai (then Chief Minister of Madras State) through Pope Paul VI was instrumental in securing his release.

Honours Ranade was honoured with Padma Shri in 2001 and with the Sangli Bhushan in 2006. He was also awarded the Goa Puraskar in 1986 for his social work.

Later life and death Ranade authored two books on the Goan independence movement: Struggle Unfinished and Satiche Vaan. He ran a charitable organisation in Pune that sponsors education of students from economically backward backgrounds. He was chairman of the Goa Red Cross for over five years. He spent his later years in the city of Pune where he died on June 25, 2019.