Thakur Roshan Singh

Thakur Roshan Singh was hanged as one of four men sentenced to death in the Kakori case. He took no part in the Kakori train robbery itself.

His death sentence rested on a different case, the Bamrauli dacoity of December 1924. That detail is often lost, and exams like to test it.

1Who was Roshan Singh?

He was a Rajput from Shahjahanpur who had already been to jail.

• He was born on 22 January 1892.
• His village was Nabada, in Shahjahanpur district.
• That area was then part of the United Provinces.
• He came from a Rajput family.
• He took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921–22.
• He was sentenced in the Bareilly shooting case.
• He served time in Bareilly Central Jail.
• Ram Prasad Bismil also came from Shahjahanpur.
• So Shahjahanpur became a centre of this revolutionary circle.

2What was the HRA?

The HRA was a small armed group that needed money.

• After release from jail, he joined the HRA in 1924.
• The HRA was set up to carry out revolutionary acts against British rule.
• Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were among its main planners.
• The group needed money to buy weapons.
• So it carried out armed raids to raise funds.
• The HRA later became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
• Chandrashekhar Azad reorganised the group in 1928.
• One raid took place at Bamrauli in December 1924.
• Bamrauli is a village in Pilibhit district.
• A murder was committed during that dacoity.
• That murder later became the basis of Roshan Singh’s death sentence.
• He is said to have trained younger recruits in shooting.

3What happened at Kakori?

The Kakori robbery was a separate act, and he was not there.

• It took place on 9 August 1925, near Lucknow.
• The train was the Number 8 Down, running from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow.
• Rajendra Lahiri pulled the emergency chain to stop it.
• The revolutionaries took the bags of government money from the guard’s cabin.
• That cash was about ₹8,000.
• A passenger, a lawyer named Ahmad Ali, was killed.
• That turned the robbery into a murder case.
• A big manhunt followed across northern India.
• Roshan Singh was not among the men who carried out the robbery.
• He was arrested on 26 September 1925.
• Bismil was arrested a month later, on 26 October 1925.

4How did the trial go?

The British tried many men together in one big case.

• Forty people were arrested from across India.
• The trial of the 21 remaining accused began on 1 May 1926.
• The statement of Banwari Lal was the main evidence.
• He had been involved in the group’s earlier raids, including Bamrauli.
• The verdict came on 6 April 1927.
• Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were sentenced to death.
• Ashfaqulla Khan was arrested later and tried in a separate supplementary case.
• He too was sentenced to death.
• After the April verdict, the accused were sent to different jails.
• They protested against wearing jail uniforms and went on hunger strike.
• They wanted to be treated as political prisoners.
• An appeal went to the Chief Court of Oudh.
• On 22 August 1927, the Chief Court endorsed the death sentences.
• Leaders such as Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Jinnah supported the accused.
• Govind Ballabh Pant was among the lawyers in their defence.

5How did the four die?

The mercy appeals failed, and the hangings came in December 1927.

• Members of the legislative council filed a mercy appeal, which was dismissed.
• Malaviya sent a memorandum with 78 signatures to the Viceroy.
• It was also turned down.
• A last appeal went to the Privy Council in London.
• The government had already decided that all four would hang by 19 December 1927.
• Rajendra Lahiri was hanged two days earlier.
• Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Roshan Singh died on 19 December.
• Roshan Singh was hanged at the Allahabad jail.
• He was 35 years old, the oldest of the four.
• Bismil was 30, Ashfaqulla about 27, and Lahiri 26.
• His family later faced social and economic hardship.
• It was hard to find marriage matches for his sisters.

6What are the exam traps?

The traps are the case, the date and the jail.

• His sentence rested on the Bamrauli dacoity, not the Kakori robbery.
• He was not part of the Kakori robbery itself.
• He joined the HRA in 1924, after the Bareilly case.
• The verdict date was 6 April 1927.
• The hanging date was 19 December 1927.
• Lahiri was hanged two days earlier, not on the same day.
• Learn the four together: Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Lahiri and Roshan Singh.
• Do not confuse him with Chandrashekhar Azad, who was never arrested in this case.
• Read about Ram Prasad Bismil.
• Read about Ashfaqulla Khan.
• Read about Rajendra Nath Lahiri.