Fresh Facts On The Hanging Of Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh is a well known figure in Indian history.He was accused of throwing a bomb in the Lahore assembly and also of shooting dead John P Saunders, an assistant superintendent of Police.Actually Bhagat Singh and his associates wanted to kill James A Scott the superintendent of police, Lahore who had personally assaulted Lala Lajpat Rai when he was leading a nonviolent demonstration.But in a case of mistaken identity it was Saunders who was shot dead on 17 December 1928, while he was emerging from the police headquarters.Along with him Head Constable Chanan Singh who tried to save Saunders was also killed.
Bhagat Singh was arrested and tried and sentenced to be hanged to death.The general belief is that Bhagat Singh was hanged by the British on March 23, 1931.
One of the facts that we know is that t Bhagat Singh and his associates including Raj Guru were hanged at night.This was contrary to the jail manual which stated that hangings are to be carried out in the morning.This is confirmed by Mr.V.N.Smith Superintendent of Police (political) Criminal Investigation Department, Punjab, who wrote in his memoirs which are preserved in a microfilm at the British Library London, — “Normally execution took place at 8 am, but it was decided to act at once before the public could become aware of what had happened”
The dead bodies of the martyrs were also not handed over to the next of kin, but cremated without the mandatory postmortem in the middle of the night.The place of the cremation was never made public.
Some interesting facts have now emerged.According to research it appears that the British had a plan named ‘Operation Trojan Horse’.As per this plan Bhagat Singh and his co conspirators were not hanged in the Lahore jail.They were hanged, but taken off the gallows in a semi conscious condition and secretly transported to Lahore Cantonment where a death squad comprising of Saunders family shot them.Saunders father in law was secretary to the governor of Punjab.
All this could not be done in the day time hence the entire operation was conducted at night.No postmortem was conducted and the bodies were taken secretly to a place 6 miles from Lahore and burnt on the bank of confluence of the Sutlej and Beas.
The plan was thorough and was followed up by the British who sent two agents to Lahore to tell the Congress and people that they had seen at Ganda Singh Wala a big burning pyre from a distance.
People believed this story and rushed to the site.They took the ashes and a half burnt arm and took it to Lahore for a proper cremation.In real terms these were not the bodies of Bhagat Singh and his comrades.This was the aim of ‘seOperation Trojan Hor’- to deny a proper and glorious accolade from the people.The British were able to deny a glorious farewell by the people.All these facts are presented in a new book by Chaman Ahuja.The book titled Some Hidden Facts: Martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh carries the subtitle “Secrets unfurled by an Intelligence Bureau Agent of British-India” is worth reading.
This is a bizarre tale but brings forth interesting facts that need to be researched further