[3] Gadkari was born into Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) family[4] on 25 September 1928 in Mumbai, in the Western Indian state of Maharashtra.
After his retirement from service in 1992, he continued freelance writing and contributed a column in the city based newspaper, Mumbai Chaufer, till 1997.
On 20 December 1990, a bomb blast took place in his house following which a few Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad supporters were arrested.
[6] In 2004, he was again in the news when a group of known personalities including Subhash Bhende, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and himself, filed a public interest litigation at the Mumbai High Court, seeking disenfranchisement of the Mumbai slum dwellers.
[3] Gadkari died on 1 June 2006, aged 78, at his Mumbai residence, leaving behind his wife, three daughters and a son.