Assembly bomb case trial
Singh and Dutt were charged with attempt to murder, and the trial magistrated by British Judge P.B. Pool and prosecuted by Rai Bahadur Suryanarayan began on 7 May 1929. Doubts have been raised about the accuracy of testimony offered at the trial. One key discrepancy related to the automatic pistol that Singh had been carrying prior to his arrest. One witness sitting amongst distinguished visitors' gallery named Sobha Singh told the court that Singh had been firing the pistol two or three times before it jammed, and some policemen stated that Singh was pointing the gun when they arrived.Later Sobha Singh was honoured with the supreme title of 'Sir' as a reward for his testimony. Sergeant Terry, who had confronted and arrested Singh, testified that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from Singh and that Singh "was playing with it." According to the India Law Journal, however, even this was incorrect, as Singh had turned over the pistol himself. According to Kooner, Singh "committed one great blunder" by taking his pistol on that day "when it was clear not to harm anybody and offer for police arrest without any protest." Kooner further states that the police connected "the shell of the gun fire found from the (Saunders') murder site and the pistol." The two were sent to the Sessions Court of Judge Leonard Middleton, who ruled that Singh and Dutt's actions had undoubtedly been 'deliberate' as the bombs had shattered the one and a half inch deep wooden floor in the Hall. Dutt was defended by Asaf Ali, while Singh defended himself. Their appeal was turned down and they were sentenced to 14 years life imprisonment.Further trial and execution
On 15 April 1929, the 'Lahore bomb factory' was discovered by the police, leading to the arrest of other members of HSRA, out of which 7 turned informants, helping the police to connect Singh with the murder of Saunders. Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were charged with the murder of Saunders. Singh decided to use the court as a tool to publicise his cause—the independence of India.Hunger strike and Lahore conspiracy case
Singh was re-arrested for murdering Saunders and Chanan Singh based on substantial evidence against him, including the statements of his associates, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal. His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case was deferred till the Saunders' case was decided. Singh was sent to the Mianwali jail from the Delhi jail, where he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian prisoners, and led other prisoners in a hunger strike to protest this illegal discrimination.They demanded equality in standards of food, clothing, toiletries and other hygienic necessities, as well as availability of books and a daily newspaper for the political prisoners, who they demanded should not be forced to do manual labour or any undignified work in the jail, as detailed in their letter to the Home Member on 24 June 1929.
Jinnah made a powerful speech in the Assembly supporting Singh, and sympathised with the prisoners on hunger strike. He declared on the floor of the Assembly:
"The man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul, and he believes in the justice of his cause ... however much you deplore them and however much you say they are misguided, it is the system, this damnable system of governance, which is resented by the people."Jawaharlal Nehru met Singh and the other strikers in Mianwali jail. After the meeting, he stated:
"I was very much pained to see the distress of the heroes. They have staked their lives in this struggle. They want that political prisoners should be treated as political prisoners. I am quite hopeful that their sacrifice would be crowned with success."The Government tried to surreptitiously break the strike by placing different food items in the prison cells to test the hungry prisoners' resolve. Water pitchers were filled with milk so that either the prisoners remained thirsty or broke their strike. But nobody faltered and the impasse refused to break. The authorities then attempted forcing food using feeding tubes into the prisoners, but were resisted. Kishori, a hunger striking prisoner swallowed red pepper and drank hot water to clog his feeding tube. The Indian Viceroy, Lord Irwin, broke his vacation in Simla and came to discuss the matter with the jail authorities. There was still no resolution. Since the activities of the hunger strikers had gained popularity and attention amongst the people nationwide, the government decided to advance the start of the Saunders murder trial, which was henceforth called the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Singh was transported to the Borstal jail. This trial began on 10 July 1929 in Borstal jail, Lahore, in the court of the first class magistrate, Rai Sahib Pandit Sri Kishen. In addition to charging them for the murder of Saunders, Singh and 27 other prisoners were charged with plotting a conspiracy to murder Scott and waging a war against the King. Singh, still on hunger strike, had to be carried to the court handcuffed on a stretcher since he had lost 14 pounds (6.4 kg) weight from 133 pounds (60 kg) before the strike.
By now, the condition of another hunger striker, Jatindra Nath Das, lodged in the same jail had deteriorated considerably. The Jail committee recommended his unconditional release, but the government rejected the suggestion and offered to release him on bail. On 13 September 1929, Das breathed his last after a 63 day hunger strike. After his death, Lord Irwin informed the British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald:
"Jatin Das of the Conspiracy Case, who was on hunger strike, died this afternoon at 1 pm Last night, five of the hunger strikers gave up their hunger strike. So there are only Bhagat Singh and Dutt who are on strike ..."Almost all the nationalist leaders in the country paid tribute to Das' death. Mohammad Alam and Gopi Chand Bhargava resigned from the Punjab Legislative Council in protest. Motilal Nehru moved an adjournment motion in the Central Assembly as a censure against the 'inhumane treatment' of the Lahore prisoners, that was carried by 55 votes against 47. Singh finally heeded to a resolution of the Congress party and his father's request and ended his 116 day long hunger strike on 5 October 1929, that was longer than 94 day long hunger strike (from 11 August to 12 November 1920) of Irish prisoners at Cork. During this period, Singh's popularity among common Indians. grew beyond Punjab. Singh attention now turned to his trial. The team for the British Crown was composed of C.H. Carden-Noad, Kalandar Ali Khan, Gopal Lal and the prosecuting inspector, Bakshi Dina Nath. The defence was composed of eight lawyers. When Jai Gopal turned into a prosecution witness, Prem Dutt, the youngest amongst the 28 accused, threw his slipper at Gopal in court. The magistrate ordered to handcuff all the accused, despite all other revolutionaries having dissociated themselves from the act. Singh and others refused to be handcuffed and were therefore subjected to brutal beating. The revolutionaries refused to attend the court and Singh wrote a letter to the magistrate citing various reasons why they had done so. The trial was henceforth ordered to be carried out in the absence of the accused or members of the HSRA. This was a setback for Singh as he could no longer use the trial as a forum to publicise his views.
Special Tribunal
Bhagat Singh in prison. circa 1922.
To speed up the slow trial, the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declared an emergency on 1 May 1930, and promulgated an ordinance setting up a special tribunal composed of three high court judges for this case. The ordinance cut short the normal process of justice as the only appeal after the tribunal was at the Privy Council located in England The Tribunal was authorised to function without the presence of any of the accused in court, and to accept death of the persons giving evidence as a concession to the defence. Consequent to Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance No.3 of 1930, the trial was transferred from Rai Sahib Pandit Sri Kishan's court to the tribunal composed of Justice J. Coldstream (president), Justice G. C. Hilton and Justice Agha Hyder (members).
The case commenced on 5 May 1930 in the Poonch House, Lahore against 18 accused. On 20 June 1930, the constitution of the Special Tribunal was changed to Justice G.C. Hilton (president), Justice J.K. Tapp and Justice Sir Abdul Qadir. On 2 July 1930, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the High Court challenging the ordinance and said that it was ultra vires and therefore illegal, stating that the Viceroy had no powers to shorten the customary process of determining justice. The petition argued that the Act, allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance and set up such a tribunal only under conditions of break down of law-and-order, whereas there had been no such breakdown. However, the petition was dismissed as 'premature'. Carden-Noad presented the government's grievous charges of conducting dacoities, bank-robbery, and illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition amongst others. The evidence of G.T.H. Hamilton Harding, the Lahore superintendent of police, shocked the court, when he stated that he had filed the First Information Report against the accused under specific orders from the chief secretary (D.J. Boyd) to the governor of Punjab (Sir Geoffrey Montmorency) and that he was unaware of the details of the case. The prosecution mainly depended upon the evidence of P.N. Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal who had been Singh's associates in the HRSA. On 10 July 1930, the tribunal decided to press charges against only 15 of the 18 accused, and allowed their petitions to be taken up for hearing the next day. The tribunal conducted the trial from 5 May 1930 to 10 September 1930. The three accused against whom the case was withdrawn included Dutt, who had already been awarded a life sentence in the Assembly bomb case.
The ordinance (and the tribunal) would lapse on 31 October 1930 as it had not been passed in the Central Assembly or the British Parliament. On 7 October 1930, the tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement based on all the evidence and concluded that participation of Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru was proved beyond reasonable doubt in Saunders' murder, and sentenced them to death by hanging. The remaining 12 accused were all sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment. The warrants for the three had a black border.
Appeal to the Privy Council
In Punjab, a defence committee drew up a plan to appeal to the Privy Council. Singh was initially against the appeal, but later agreed to it in the hope that the appeal would popularise the HSRA in Great Britain. The appellants objected to the ordinance that created the tribunal as invalid. The government again plead that the Viceroy was completely empowered to create such a tribunal under the said Act (Section 72 ). The appeal was dismissed by Judge Viscount Dunedin.Reactions to the judgement
After the rejection of the appeal to the Privy Council, Congress party president Madan Mohan Malviya filed a mercy appeal before Lord Irwin on 14 February 1931. An appeal was sent to Mahatma Gandhi by prisoners to intervene. In his notes dated 19 March 1931, the Viceroy recorded:"While returning Gandhiji asked me if he could talk about the case of Bhagat Singh, because newspapers had come out with the news of his slated hanging on March 24th. It would be a very unfortunate day because on that day the new president of the Congress had to reach Karachi and there would be a lot of hot discussion. I explained to him that I had given a very careful thought to it but I did not find any basis to convince myself to commute the sentence. It appeared he found my reasoning weighty."The Communist Party of Great Britain expressed its reaction to the case:
"The history of this case, of which we do not come across any example in relation to the political cases, reflects the symptoms of callousness and cruelty which is the outcome of bloated desire of the imperialist government of Britain so that fear can be instilled in the hearts of the repressed people."An abortive plan had been made to rescue Singh and fellow inmates of HSRA from the jail. HSRA member Bhagwati Charan Vohra made bombs for the purpose, but died making them when they exploded accidentally.
Writings in prison
Singh also maintained the use of a diary, which eventually grew to include 404 pages. In this diary, he made numerous notes regarding the quotations and popular sayings of various people whose views he agreed with. Prominent in his diary were the views of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The comments in his diary led to an understanding of the philosophical thinking of Singh. In his prison cell, he also wrote a pamphlet entitled Why I am an Atheist, in response to him being accused of vanity by not accepting God in the face of death. It is also said that he signed a mercy petition through a comrade Bijoy Kumar Sinha on 8 March 1931.Execution
Criticism of the Special Tribunal and method of execution
Singh's trial is generally considered to be an important event in the Indian history, as it went contrary to the fundamental doctrine of criminal jurisprudence. An ex-parte trial was against the principles of natural justice that no man shall be held guilty unless given an opportunity to defend in a hearing. The Special Tribunal was a departure from the normal procedure adopted for a trial. The decision of the tribunal could only be appealed to the Privy Council located in Britain. The accused were absent from the court and the judgement was passed ex-parte. The ordinance, which was introduced by the Viceroy to form the Special Tribunal, was never approved by the Central Assembly or the British Parliament, and it eventually lapsed without any legal or constitutional sanctity.It was probably for the first time, that executions were carried out in the evening, by advancing the date of execution. The families of the accused were not allowed to meet them before the execution nor were they informed about it, even the bodies of the three were not given to their relatives after the execution to perform last rites, but were removed by demolishing the rear wall of the jail since there was an angry crowd at the front gate and were disposed off by cutting them into pieces and burning with the help of kerosene after which the remains were thrown into Satluj river.
Reactions to the executions
Front page of The Tribune announcing Bhagat Singh's execution
The execution of Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were reported widely by the press, especially as they were on the eve of the annual convention of the Congress party at Karachi. Gandhi faced black flag demonstrations by angry youth who shouted "Down with Gandhi". The New York Times reported:
A reign of terror in the city of Cawnpore in the United Provinces and an attack on Mahatma Gandhi by a youth outside Karachi were among the answers of the Indian extremists today to the hanging of Bhagat Singh and two fellow-assassins.Hartals and strikes of mourning were called. The Congress party, during the Karachi session, declared:
While dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form, this Congress places on record its admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev and Raj Guru and mourns with their bereaved families the loss of these lives. The Congress is of the opinion that their triple execution was an act of wanton vengeance and a deliberate flouting of the unanimous demand of the nation for commutation. This Congress is further of the opinion that the [British] Government lost a golden opportunity for promoting good-will between the two nations, admittedly held to be crucial at this juncture, and for winning over to methods of peace a party which, driven to despair, resorts to political violence.In the 29 March 1931 issue of Young India, Gandhi wrote:
"Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in a vain.
Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologize, or even file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat Singh wrote, " I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of a cannon and blow me off." These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a thousand times for their heroism.
But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of violence, we shall be reaping the fruit of our own actions.
Hence, though we praise the courage of these brave men, we should never countenance their activities. Our dharma is to swallow our anger, abide by the discipline of non-violence and carry out our duty."
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