The Kakori train robbery (also called the Kakori Conspiracy or Kakori Case) (Hindi: काकोरी काण्ड, Urdu: کاکوری کانڈ) was a train robbery that took place between Kakori and Alamnagar near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925 during the Indian Independence Movement against the British.[1][2][3]German-made Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistols[4] with wooden stock were used in this historical event by the Hindustan Republican Association activists.
The Conspiracy :
The idea of the robbery was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan who belonged to the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA, which after 1928 became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association or HSRA) that was created to carry out revolutionary activities against the British Empire in India. The objective of the HRA was to conduct an armed revolution against the British government. The organization needed money for the supply of weaponry, and thus Bismil decided to loot a train on one of the Northern Railway lines.[5] The robbery plan was executed by Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Chandrasekhar Azad, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshab Chakravarthy, Manmathnath Gupta, Murari Sharma (fake name of Murari Lal Gupta), Mukundi Lal (Mukundi Lal Gupta) and Banwari Lal.[6][7][8]
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On August 9, 1925, the Number 8 Down Train travelling from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow was approaching the town of Kakori (now in Uttar Pradesh), when one of the revolutionaries pulled the chain to stop the train and overpowered the guard. It is believed that they looted that specific train because the train was supposed to carry the money-bags belonging to the British Government Treasury in the guard's cabin. They looted only these bags and escaped to Lucknow while not a single Indian was looted, because the targets of the mission were (1). To get money for the organization which was intended to get it from the opponent British Administration itself. (2). To get some public attention by creatng positive image of HRA among Indians,so as to come over the bad image of Dacoits which was created by British Administration. (3). To shake the British Administration by taking away money from them. Following the incident, started an intense manhunt and arrested several of the revolutionaries involved in the HRA. Their group captian Ram Prasad Bismil was arrested at Shahjahanpur on September 26, 1925 and his lieutenant Ashfaqullah Khan was arrested ten months later at Delhi.[5]
In this historical case 40 persons[9] were arrested from all over India. Their names with the place of arrest are:
Amongst the above persons, three viz. Shachindra Nath Sanyal, Rajendra Lahiri and Yogesh Chandra Chatterji had already been arrested in Bengal. Lahiri was prosecuted even in a Dakshineshwar bomb blast case whereas the two viz. Ashfaqullah Khan and Sachindra Bakshi were arrested later when the main Kakori Conspiracy Case was over. A supplimentary case was filed against these two and they were procecuted in the same manner.
A case was filed against Ram Prasad Bismil and others under the following criminal prosecution: 1.U/S 121 (War against British King Emperor), 2.U/S 120 (Political Conspiracy), 3.U/S 396 (Robbery and Murder) & 4.U/S 302 (Murder). This trial was termed as Kakori conspiracy in the history and the case was named as "King Emperor versus Ram Prasad Bismil and others".
The government had withdrawn the case against 15 persons as the police could not collects any witness to prove them guilty. The name of these persons are: 1.Shitala Sahai, 2.Chandra Dhar Jauhari, 3.Madan Lal, 4.Ram Ratna Shukla, 5.Mohan Lal Gautam, 6.Chandra Bhal Jauhari, 7.Harnam Sunder Lal, 8.Dev Dutt Bhattacharya, 9.Ram Dutt Shukla, 10.Babu Ram Verma, 11.Gopi Mohan, 12.Sharat Chandra Guha, 13.Bhairon Singh, 14.Kali Das Bose and 15.Indra Vikram Singh.
Out of ten persons who took part in the action (fake name of robbery in their language), five absconded. They were: 1. Ashfaqullah Khan, 2. Chandrasekhar Azad, 3. Shachindra Bakshi, 4. Murari Sharma (fake name) and 5. Keshab Chakravarthy (fake name). Police could not trace them till the start of trial.
Among these five only two viz. Ashfaqullah Khan and Sachindra Bakhshi were arrested after the trial was final and the verdict was given. Rest of the three could not be traced out. Only one of these three, Chandrasekhar Azad reorganised the HRA in 1928 and was killed on 27 Feb 1931 at Alfred Park Allahabad.
Keshab Chakravarthy was involved in the action with a fake name hence he could not be arrested. Since the police had arrested Thakur Roshan Singh- a member similar to the age of Chakravarthy on the ground of sound witnesses, they did not bother for the arrest of others two involved with a fake name. Keshab formed RSS at Nagpur with the help of some school going children. He was known as Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who died on 21-06-1940 at Resham Bagh, Nagpur. Likewise Murari Sharma was also a fake name. He lived underground in Delhi and when the case was decided, he came back to his native village Mudia Panwar of Shahjahanpur district. Later on he settled at Shahjahanpur City and lived there until his death. He died on 02-04-1982.
After filing the charge sheet against the accused, the session court played diplomatically game and the case was withdrawn against the three accused by the Special Magistrate. They were: 1.Veer Bhadra Tiwari, 2.Jyoti Shankar Dixit and 3.Shiv Charan Lal Sharma. It was suspected that these three had given some secret clues to the Special Magistrate Mr. Ainuddin. Another accused Damodar Swarup Seth was also released due to his severe illness.
Among the persons arrested from Shahjahanpur, Banarsi Lal and Indu Bhushan Mitra became approvers. They helped the court in prosecuting the main accused Ram Prasad Bismil. Likewise Banwari Lal who was the District Organiser of Raibareli also helped police and court in getting the case strong against accused. For this he was given privilege of the simple sentence of two years only.
After the withdrawal of the case against 15 accused and fixing the approvers by Special Magistate Syed Ainuddin with the help of Dy. S.P. (C.I.D.) Khan Bahadur Tasadduk Husain, the final case against 28 accused started on 21 May 1926 in the special session court of Mr A. Hamilton. Abbas Salim Khan, Banwari Lal Bhargava, Gyan Chattarjee and Mohd Ayuf were the assessers of the case. Among these 28, three accused viz. Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Rajendra Nath Lahiri were dragged in the trial from Bengal as they had already been held there.
Court appointed Pandit Jagat Narayan Mulla as public prosecutor knowingly, because Jagat Narayan was prejudice to Ram Prasad Bismil since 1916 when Bismil leaded the grand procession of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak against his will at Lucknow. He had also been the public procecutor in Mainpuri conspiracy case of 1918.
Pt. Jagat Narayan Mulla pleaded the case as public prosecutor on behalf of the Government whereas Ram Prasad Bismil defended his case himself.
Following the arrest of Ashfaqullah Khan, the police tried to make him provide evidence against his accomplices, but he refused.Another supplementary case was filed against Ashfaqulla Khan and Sachindra Bakshi in the court of Special Sessions Judge J.R.W. Bennett. An appeal was filed in the then Chief Court of Oudh (now in U.P.) on 18 July 1927.
Despite protests by the defence committee, which was chaired by Gobind Ballabh Pant, four of the total accused, namely Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Roshan Singh were sentenced to death by the Court of Justice. 16 others were either given life sentences or long prison terms varying from 3 years to 14 years. Banwari Lal, who became approver was also sentenced for 2 years
The following ghazal of Bismil Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna was very much popular amongst all freedom fighters. They used to sing it in a chorus while proceeding to the court for trial. British Government has banned it totally to be published in any of the leading newspapers but small papers continued its publishing. Its English translation is reproduced hereunder[10] along with the original Urdu ghazal in Devnagri script.
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Our heart has the dire desire to die, |
सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है, |
After final judgement of court, the group photograph was taken and all the accused were sent to the different jails of United Province. They were asked to put off their clothes and wear the jail dress like other prisoners. All the accused protested this jail order and started hunger strikes on the first day. Their plea was quite genuine. They argued that since the all have been charged to overturn the British rule and have been punished under section 120(B) and 121(A) hence they should be treated as political prisoners and provided the same facilities in the jails.
The details of their hunger strike are given hereunder[11]:
| Name of the prisoner | Name of the jail | Days of hunger strike |
|---|---|---|
| Ram Prasad Bismil | Gorakhpur Central Jail | 5 days (from 7-4-1927 to 11-4-1927) |
| Roshan Singh | Allahabad Jail | 6 days (from 7-4-1927 to 13-4-1927) |
| Ram Nath Pandey | Raibareli District Jail | 11 days (from 7-4-1927 to 18-4-1927) |
| Prem Krishna Khanna | Dehradun District Jail | 16 days (from 7-4-1927 to 23-4-1927) |
| Suresh Chandra Bhattacharya | Agra Central Jail | 19 days (from 7-4-1927 to 26-4-1927) |
| Ram Krishna Khatri | Agra Central Jail | 32 days (from 7-4-1927 to 9-5-1927) |
| Mukundi Lal | Bareilly District Jail | 32 days (from 7-4-1927 t0 9-5-1927) |
| Raj Kumar Sinha | Bareilly District Jail | 38 days (from 7-4-1927 to 15-5-1927) |
| Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee | Fatehgarh Jail | 41 days (from 7-4-1927 to 18-5-1927) |
| Ram Dulare Trivedi | Fatehgarh Jail | 41 days (from 7-4-1927 to 18-5-1927) |
| Govind Charan Kar | Fatehgarh Jail | 41 days (from 7-4-1927 to 18-5-1927) |
| Manmath Nath Gupta | Naini Allahabad Jail | 45 days (from 7-4-1927 to 22-5-1927) |
| Vishnu Sharan Dublish | Naini Allahabad Jail | 45 days (from 7-4-1927 to 22-5-1927) |
The legal defence for the arrested revolutionaries was provided by Gobind Ballabh Pant, Mohan Lal Saxena, Chandra Bhanu Gupta, Ajit Prasad Jain, Gopi Nath Srivastava, R. M. Bahadurji and B. K. Chaudhury and Kripa Shankar Hajela. Pandit Jagat Narayan Mulla, a leading advocate from Lucknow and brother in law of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru refused to take up the defence of the arrested revolutionaries. He was appointed as Public Prosecutor by the law of Court.
Among the political figures who came out in support of those arrested for the Kakori train robbery were: Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lala Lajpat Rai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Shiv Prasad Gupta, Shri Prakash and Acharya Narendra Dev.[12]
There were widespread protests against the Court's decision all over the country, and members of the Central Legislature even petitioned the Viceroy of India to commute the death sentences given to the four men to life sentences. Appeals were also sent to the Privy Council and even to Mohandas K. Gandhi himself. However, these requests were turned down and the men were finally executed.[5]
On 22 August 1927 the Chief Court endorsed the original judgement with an exception of one or two punishments. A mercy appeal was filed in due course before the Provincial Governor of U.P. by the members of legislative council which was dismissed. Ram Prasad Bismil wrote a letter to Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya on 9 September 1927 from Gorakhpur Jail. Malviya sent a memorandum to the then Viceroy and Governor General of India Edward Fredrick Lindley Wood with the signatures of 78 Members of Central Legislature, which was also turned down.
On 16 September 1927 the final mercy appeal was forwarded to Privy Council at London and to the King Emperor through a famous lawyer of England S.L. Polak[13] but the British Government, who had already decided to hang them, sent their final decision to the India office of Viceroy that all the four condemned prisoners are to be hanged till death by 19 December 1927 positively
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