Prafulla Chaki

Prafulla Chaki was 19 years old when he threw a bomb meant for a hated British magistrate. The bomb missed its target and killed two British women instead, and Chaki shot himself rather than face arrest days later.

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Modern History · ModHist0120

Prafulla Chaki

The teenage revolutionary of the Muzaffarpur bombing

10 Dec 1888

Born in Bihar village, Bogra district, Bengal Presidency.

c. 1906

Brought to Calcutta by Barindra Kumar Ghosh, and enlisted in Jugantar.

30 Apr 1908

With Khudiram Bose, bombs a carriage in Muzaffarpur, meant for magistrate Kingsford.

2 May 1908

Cornered at Mokama station; shoots himself rather than be arrested.

A bomb that missed its target

The carriage carried two British women, not the magistrate. Their deaths triggered a manhunt that ended both Chaki’s life and, weeks later, Khudiram Bose’s.

📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know

Must Know

Prafulla Chaki was born on 10 December 1888, in Bihar village, Bogra district, then part of the Bengal Presidency.
Barindra Kumar Ghosh brought him to Calcutta and enlisted him in the Jugantar party.
His first assignment was to kill Sir Bampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The plan did not go ahead.
He was then chosen, along with Khudiram Bose, to assassinate Douglas Kingsford, the magistrate of Muzaffarpur.
Kingsford had been the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta. He was known for passing harsh sentences on young nationalist workers.
On the evening of 30 April 1908, Chaki and Bose threw a bomb at a carriage outside the European Club, believing Kingsford was inside. The bomb had been built by Jugantar’s Ullaskar Dutta.
The carriage instead carried the wife and daughter of a local barrister. Both women died in the blast.
Chaki fled toward Mokama, but a police officer recognised him on the station platform on 2 May 1908. He shot himself rather than be arrested, aged 19.

Good to Know

Chaki used the alias “Dinesh Chandra Roy” during the Muzaffarpur operation.
His head was sent to Calcutta after his death, to be identified. Khudiram Bose identified it, which led to Bose’s own arrest soon after.
Khudiram Bose was tried for the deaths, sentenced to death, and hanged at Muzaffarpur jail on 19 August 1908. He remains one of the youngest people ever hanged by the British in India.
The bombing led to a wider police crackdown, which uncovered the Maniktala bomb factory. This led directly to the Alipore Bomb Case against Barindra Kumar Ghosh and others.
Mahatma Gandhi condemned the bombing and the deaths of the two women, arguing that violent methods would not win India’s freedom.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak defended the two young revolutionaries in his newspaper, Kesari, and called for immediate swaraj. The British government responded by arresting Tilak on charges of sedition.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

Chaki’s story is often overshadowed by Khudiram Bose’s, since Bose was tried and executed publicly while Chaki died before any trial.
The Muzaffarpur bombing shows how a single failed operation could still reshape the wider revolutionary movement. It exposed the Maniktala group and triggered a much larger case.
Nandalal Banerjee, the police officer who identified Chaki at Mokama, was later assassinated by two other young revolutionaries in reprisal.
Chaki was 19 years old when he died. His entire documented revolutionary career, from recruitment to death, spanned only a few years.

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