Shaheed- e- Azam Bhagat Singh
- Born on September 28 in 1907 in Nawanshahr (now Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar) of Punjab, Bhagat Singh was hanged at the age of 23 along with revolutionaries Rajguru and Sukhdev on March 23 in 1931.
Case against Bhagat Singh-
- There were Two cases in which Bhagat Singh was tried:
- 1st – the Central Legislative Assembly Bombing Case in April 1929 (Delhi), for which he was sentenced to Imprisonment for life.
- 2nd – Murder of British police officer John Saunders on December 17, 1928 (Lahore conspiracy case) – Sentenced to death.
- On 8 April 1929,Bhagat Singh, accompanied by Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Assembly chamber from its public gallery
- They both were arrested and the trial in this case began on May 7, 1929 before British magistrate BP Pool.
- Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt were represented by Asif Ali. From the beginning, Bhagat Singh demanded to be treated as political prisoner.
- But the judge framed false charges that Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt threw bomb with the intention “to kill or cause injuries to the King Majesty’s subjects”, and that Bhagat Singh fired gunshots in the legislative assembly.
And both were charged under-
- Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (Attempt to murder)
- Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act. – Punishment for causing explosion likely to endanger life or property – Imprisonment up to life.
- The two revolutionaries refused to cooperate in the trial.
- Bhagat Singh did carry a pistol to the central hall but he had surrendered it to the police at the time of courting arrest.
- In fact government labelled these revolutionaries as “murderers” and “terrorists” to dismiss their demands for rights as “political prisoners”.
- 6 June 1929 – became the most important day of the trial.
- On this day Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt made their famous statement that the Assembly Bomb was Not ‘an attack directed against any individual but an institution itself’ because their purpose was only ‘to make the deaf hear’ as ‘revolution is an inalienable right of mankind’ and ‘freedom is an imperishable birthright of all’.
- Within a week, on 12 June 1929, a 41-page judgment convicting the two accused was read out by Leonard Middleton, the Delhi Sessions Judge, sentencing them to imprisonment for life.
Lahore conspiracy case-
- After the first case, Bhagat Singh was linked with another case – murder of British police officer John P Saunders and head constable Chanan Singh.
- The police based their case on the similarity in handwritings of the leaflets thrown by Bhagat Singh in the Assembly Chamber and those found pasted at various places in Lahore following the killing of Saunders..
- Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were tried for the murder of Saunders and Chanan Singh. The trial in the Lahore Conspiracy case began in Borstal Jail and was heard by first-class magistrate Pandit Sri Kishen.
- In the mean time Bhagat Singh and his associates had begun a hunger strike in jail to protest against the living conditions of the prisoners
- Their instant popularity became an issue of big worry for the government.
- The British government was losing patience as Bhagat Singh’s popularity was soaring despite his being in jail
- Trial continued before proper magistrate Pandit Sri Kishen in Lahore for a period of 10 months.
- Over 200 witnesses had already being examined.
Suddenly On May 1, 1930, Governor-General Lord Irwin promulgated an ordinance called ‘Lahore Ordinance III of 1930’ to extricate the Lahore Conspiracy case from the Magistrates’ Court and sent it to a Special Tribunal.The excuse given was danger to ‘peace and good governance’ for setting up this tribunal.On October 7, three weeks before its term was coming to an end, the tribunal pronounced Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru guilty of killing Saunders and Chanan Singh.
WHY CONVICTION WAS ILLEGAL
- WHY CONVICTION WAS ILLEGAL
- Trial– a process of law that is followed in court where a judge decides if a person is guilty or not after thoroughly listening to all sides, going through the evidences and giving an equal chance to the accused to present his/her side and to have a legal representative
- That’s what Bhagat Singh and his companions were gravely denied by the British government.
- The entire case against Bhagat Singh was flawed.
- In the FIR, lodged in the case of the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh was not named as an accused or suspect. His name was not added even later.
- It was only after the trial in the bomb case began that the British police connected him with the Lahore Conspiracy case.
Ordinance that was brought to set up the tribunal for trial of the Lahore Conspiracy case never got the nod of the legislature. It expired after the tribunal held Bhagat Singh guilty.
- In fact the Tribunal had three judges appointed in it.
- Of the three judges picked for the Tribunal one Agha Haider, was an Indian. He was no puppet.
- In the absence of the accused and their lawyers (who boycotted the proceedings), Justice Haider challenged the prosecution witnesses, picking holes in their evidence. By the time he was finished, six of the seven eyewitnesses’ testimonies collapsed!
- Ultimately Government dumped Justice Haider and one of the British judges, citing their poor health for their removal.
- The trial against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru violated the principle natural of justice. The accused were never presented before the tribunal. Their defence was not heard. The defence lawyer was not allowed to cross-examine nearly 450 prosecution witnesses.
- In Assembly Bombing Case some witnesses said that he had fired two or three shots while the police sergeant who arrested him testified that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from him and that Singh “was playing with it.”
- The death warrant on which they were executed was not issued by the trial court as it had ceased to exist for the Ordinance did not get legislative approval.
- Under the law, only the trial court was empowered to issue the death warrant. The death warrant that was issued and executed upon was, thus, illegal.
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