In ‘Kakori Robbery’ case the police had nabbed around 40 revolutionaries. Some of them were released and 28 faced the trial.
Hindustan Republican Association had disintegrated. Chandrashekhar Azad was still on the run. The rest were either facing trials being in the police custody or had become prosecution witnesses and approvers. The supporters and the backer of the organisation had washed their hands off it.
28 accused were—Bismil, Roshan, Lahiri, Ashfaq, S. Sanyal, Bakshi, Manmathnath, Y. Chatterji, Mukandilal, G. Charankar, Raj Kumar Singh, R. Khari, V. Dublis, S. Bhattacharya, Bhupendra Sanyal, P. Khanna, R. Dwivedi. P. Chatterji. S. Vishwas, Hargoivnd, Damodar Seth, Shivcharan, V. Tiwari, Banwarilal, Banarsilal, Indu Bhushan, G. M Saha and Kunwar Bahadur.
Later Banwari Lal and Indu Bhushan turned public approvers. G.M. Saha and Kunwar Bahadur were made prosecution witnesses. Damodar was released in consideration of his ill health by sessions court. Charges on Shivcharan and V. Tiwari were mysteriously withdrawn during the trial under some secret deal.
20 revolutionaries faced the real trial which lasted for 18 months. The famed lawyer Jagatnarain Mulla played the role of public prosecutor.
On 6th April, 1927 the Sessions Court delivered the verdict. S. Vishwas and Hargovind were acquitted for lack of evidence against them. The rest 18 got various punishment:
- Ramprasad Bismil : Life sentence under two clauses and death by hanging in the third.
- Rajendra Lahiri : Life sentence and death by hanging under another clause.
- Roshan Singh : Two five year sentences and death by hanging on the third charge.
- Ashfaq Ullah Khan : Death sentence.
- S. Sanyal : Life sentence at Kala Pani.
- S. Bakshi : Life sentence at Kala Panil.
- Manmathnath Gupt : 14 years imprisonment.
- G. Charanakar : 14 years imprisonment.
- Mukandilal : 14 years imprisonment.
- Rajkumar Singh : 10 years imprisonment.
- R. Khatri : 10 years imprisonment.
- S. Bhattacharya : 7 years imprisonment.
- V. Dublis : 7 years imprisonment.
- P. Khanna, D. Chatterji : 5 years imprisonment each
- R. Dwivedi, Bhupendra Sanyal : 5 years imprisonment each
All the imprisonments were rigorous. The prosecution appealed and Y. Chatterji, Mukandilal and G. Charnakar’s ten years sentences were enhanced into life imprisonments. V. Dublis and S. Bhattacharya got 10 years each.
The rescue attempts
The sentences shocked and dismayed the countrymen. Petitions against the death sentences were sent to the state governor and the Viceroy. All the state legislature members, 250 prominent citizens, honorary magistrates and fiefs sent a signed appeal to the governor pleading for remission of the capital punishment.
Sir William Morris was then the governor of U.P. Similar appeal to was made to the Viceroy. Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and some members of the Central Assembly personally met the Viceroy to plead for the postponement of execution of the death sentence.
The Privy Council of London was also approached. But nothing worked. The government was determined to hang the revolutionaries to break the morale of the militants and the aspiring Indians.
In jail Ramprasad Bismil never thought of escaping because he didn’t want to betray the trust of the jailor who was a benevolent soul. He had given enough liberties to Bismil who could freely roam about within the jail precincts.
There were no restrictions.
For some reason the jailor, Raisaheb Champalal was extremely kind to Kakori accused. The sentenced revolutionaries were living in the jail like state guests.
If Bismil had liked he could have escaped from the prison. The entire jail staff was very friendly to the Kakori case prisoners.
One night Bismil saw that it was quiet all over. All the guards and wardens were fast asleep. He was seized by a wish to try an escape bid. It was so easy. Bismil advanced towards the main gate. Suddenly he thought of the kind jail staff and the trust they had put in him. How could he betray them? He had never betrayed anyone in his life.
Why now?
He retraced his steps with the realisation that it was better to die then betray some one. Living with a guilty conscience was worse than death for Ramprasad Bismil.
Meanwhile after being on the run for a long time Chandra Shekhar Azad returned to Kanpur. He had heard the news of the capital punishment to Bismil and others. It had broken his heart.
At Kanpur he came into contact with Sardar Bhagat Singh and his associates. A new life and hope surged through Azad. He felt that he could carry on the battle. The two revolutionaries got together and rallied the surviving revolutionary youth.
In a grand convention of revolutionaries secretly held at Firozeshah Kotla ruins in Delhi formation of ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Army’ was duly announced. Its aim was to throw a direct challenge to the British government.
One of the immediate agenda before HSRA was to try to rescue the comrades facing the hangman’s noose in Kakori case. Bhagat Singh was for freeing Ramprasad Bismil at any cost.
The plans were drawn.
But it was discovered that putting the plans in action was not easy. Lately the watch on Bismil and his associates in prison had suddenly been increased. It was impossible to breach the police defence of the jail. The police had received the information on the newly formed revolutionary organisation. It already suspected that a bid to free Bismil and his associates could be made.
A revolutionary Vijay surveyed the jail and concluded that rescue bid was impossible to carry on. He advised abandonment of the plan.
It broke the heart of Bhagat Singh. He received a poem written by Bismil lamenting—‘What is the use of physician arriving after the patient has passed away?
What is the use of rain drops falling after the crop has withered away?
What is the use of a beloved responding after the lover in wait has gone grey?
What is the use of kindling hopes when the dreams have died away?’
In his poetic language Bismil had urged his comrades to do whatever they could before it was too late. It was an urgent message. The authorities had allowed it out taking it just for a poem.
No effort of the comrades prove helpful to Bismil.
Now it had become quite clear that Bismil and his associates would be hanged on schedule as all the overt and coverts bids to prevent the hanging had failed.
There was no hope left.
Bismil was in a small cell of Gorakhpur jail. Waiting in the death cell he wrote—
‘Whatever I did it was for the sake of the country.
I built up a stout body to be able to serve the country more effectively.
At last that auspicious hour is approaching that will certify my intentions being true.
After the 1857 armed mutiny my body will be the first to die for the same noble cause.
The government wants me to die a tortured man. So, they time my hanging in such a way that I suffer the three scorching summer months in this small cell being roasted (like a popcorn). This jail is built in a treeless open ground to receive the full attention of the blazing sun. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. the sandy soil around here remains heated up like hell.
Mine is a 9’×9’×6′ cell which is more like an oven enlivened by hot and stinging music of mosquitoes. I can’t sleep. Must stay awake to clap and applaud the music. I am served food in clay pots. This environment will be appreciated by the ascetics. The mood is being built up. Everyone is advising me I must pray to God because my last hour is drawing closer.
Very religious set up it is. A penance maker’s delight. It makes me feel like writing some verses for the countrymen and the posterity.
He wrote a couple of verses on patriotism and the ultimate sacrifice it demanded.
He kept writing in his cell to fill the void between the life and the death with poetic words and expressions besides straight texts.
He wrote—
“We have been labelled as dacoits and sentenced to life or death. We think that the lawyers and the doctors are bigger dacoits. They openly loot and plunder their clients, build tall mansions for the luxurious living. They are the real broad day light dacoits. But society respects them. It is a joke. Is there any real difference between these day robbers and dacoits who mostly rob at night? They are clever dacoits, I think.
Historically what we have done has great value. It proves that inspite of the miserable state in which our country is there are some odds ones who rise up and hit back at the doers of injustices.
That keeps the hope alive.
Every down trodden country has shining examples to look up to. Take the cases of Kamal Ataturk Pasha of Turkey, Lenin of Russia, Shivaji of our own country, Clive Lloyd of England, Sun Yat Sen of China etc.
Success is the key to what you are labelled as. The unsuccessful ones are nihilists, dacoits, traitors and murderers. But success makes the same people decorated generals, national heroes and the illustrious ones. That is the way of the world. Take my case, today I am being condemned to death as barbaric dacoit. My comrades think I am revolutionary. When our country gains freedom I might be hailed as a national martyr who died for the cause of the country. That will redeem my life in death.
And it is bound to happen.’
As the hanging day drew nearer he began to write last letters to his near and dear ones. He wrote one letter to his revered mother seeking her last blessings. He also wrote to a close friend.
He wrote an emotional letter to his confidant Ashfaq Ullah Khan thanking him for his trust and always standing by him. He drew consolation in the fact that even after death they will be together as co-martyrs.
He also wrote a message to the countrymen on 16th December, 1927.
On 19th December he woke up in the normal way, took his bath, meditated and then put on a new pair of dhoti-kutra to meet his death.
At the appointed time the call came.
He cheerfully walked towards the gallows flanked by jail authorities. On the way he greeted and talked to everyone who came across.
On the altar of martyrdom he stood before the noose. With the slogans of ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Bharat Maata Ki Jai’ he mounted the altar. Then he announced ‘I wish the downfall of British Empire’. After reciting a Vedic mantra he himself put the noose around his neck like a garland.
The hangman pulled the lever and Bismil’s body hung in the air.
Thus departed a daredevil son of India who sacrificed his life in the cause of the motherland.
