In 1925, Kakori train robbery was executed by the revolutionaries near Lucknow. A government treasury being transported by the train was looted. The revolutionaries decamped with the loot and escaped into nearly jungles.
The authorities hit back with a prompt police and C.I.D. action. The revolutionaries were nabbed one by one. Only Chandra Shakhar Azad eluded the police dragnet and slipped away south-wards.
The nabbed revolutionaries were put on trial. Whenever there was hearing Bhagat Singh would reach the court to meet the old comrades braving the danger of his own arrest. He even tried to make plans to rescue the undertrials. But it was not possible due to the lack of monetary resources and human support.
What the nabbed revolutionaries revealed in no way showed that Bhagat Singh was also involved in the crime. The police was not convinced. It thought that Bhagat Singh had some connection to it.
Bhagat Singh himself suspected that the police was upto some trick against him.
Once he got down from the train at Amritsar Railway Station. He had some uncanny feeling that he was under police watch. He was alert and had a pistol in his pocket. Out of the station he entered a narrow lane. He saw a policeman follow him. He dodged the policeman and entered into the house of a lawyer whom he knew.
He found the lawyer pursuing some files. With his permission Bhagat Singh sat down on a chair. After that he produced his pistol and put it on the table in front of the lawyer.
The lawyer took the hint and dropped the weapon in his table drawer. He got up and said, “Follow me, Bhagat.” The lawyer took him to his inner room and left him in the care of a servant. The lawyer began to pace ground outside his gate. Meanwhile, Bhagat washed himself and took meals offered by the servant.
Outside, a policeman approached the lawyer and enquired, “Sir, a Sikh youngman came this way a shortwhile ago. See him?”
“Yes, I did. He was in kurta-pajama,” the lawyer said.
“Which way did he go?”
“Towards that corner,” he pointed with his hand.
The policeman ran towards that corner. There was the office of ‘Keerti’ a revolutionary magazine. Policeman smiled. It was just the place Bhagat Singh would run to naturally. He searched the office hoping to find Bhagat Singh who infact was sleeping comfortably in the lawyer’s house. The lawyer kept a vigil all day along. At night when the coast was clear Bhagat Singh took leave of the lawyer.
He took train to Lahore. As he was going to his house on a tonga the police swooped in. He was taken to the police station in handcuffs. The news of the arrest of his son shocked Kishan Singh. He ran around to get Bhagat released.
The police had arrested Bhagat Singh in ‘Dussehra Bomb’ case. Some time ago someone had thrown a bomb on the Dussehra crowd in which some people were killed and many were injured. It was a false implication of an innocent youngman.
The authorities hoped that they would be to make Bhagat spill his beans and admit to his being involved in Kakori train dacoity. Infact, the Lucknow police inspector who was investigating the ‘Kakori Train Robbery’ case had arrived in Lahore to take remand of Bhagat Singh.
But Bhagat Singh stood his ground braving the police torture and everything the officers threw at him. The police was getting desperate. The efforts of Kishan Singh to save his son was creating added pressure.
When Bhagat Singh was produced before the magistrate he declared that he was innocent. The police had no evidence of his involvement in the cases he was arrested for. The judge had to allow the bail. But he set the bail at Rs. 50,000.
It was a huge amount, almost equivalent to more than 25 lac rupees of today. Kishan Singh somehow raised that amount. He must have borrowed, mortgaged property, and God knows what he did. Bhagat Singh was released.
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