Panjab CM Requests Material Related To Bhagat Singh’s Trial

The Panjab government has sought the UK government’s assistance in procuring films, tapes, and other archival documentation relating to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh's trial proceedings. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann made the request in a letter dated 9 Jan to British Deputy High Commissioner Alba Smeriglio. The letter said, ‘It is learnt that original audio/video recordings and archival documentation pertaining to the trial proceedings of Shaheed (martyr) Bhagat Singh, Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar, and Shaheed Shivaram Hari Rajguru are presently held by concerned authorities in Scotland. They are reportedly preserved within a museum/institution maintaining historical legal archives.’ Bhagat Singh, aged 23, was hanged on 23 March 1931, along with Sukhdev and Rajguru, for the murder of British police officer John Saunders in what came to be known as the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Backing the move, Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, Chairman of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Foundation Pakistan, said the demand resonates with their long-standing struggle to have the controversial trial reviewed. Qureshi recalled that he had filed a constitutional petition in the Lahore High Court in May 2013, seeking the reopening of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, 1928. The petition argued that the trial did not meet the standards of due process, as the verdict was announced without hearing testimonies of nearly 450 witnesses and without providing the accused a fair opportunity to appeal. The request reflects the enduring political and emotional struggle of the people of both East and West Panjab. However, a review of British archival catalogues shows that no such recordings were made because the trial took place at a time when sound recording was not practiced in British courts and film cameras were not suited to routine courtroom proceedings. What survives instead is a substantial written archive, spread across British holdings in London. These records are extensive but are textual in nature. The India Office Records at the British Library hold intelligence information from 1929–31 mapping the revolutionary’s networks and assessments of his activities. The National Archives in Kew record how the case and the executions were discussed in London, including fears of mass protest and international reaction to the use of capital punishment (earlier coverage).