Chandigarh, September 28
Nearly 70 years after a British woman was pushed out of a moving train, the Centre will invoke its diplomatic channel to obtain copies of the murder case judgement from a Pakistani court to determine if Captain Miss Heran was murdered as part of India’s crusade for freedom.

The murder case came alive, after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took up her assassin Jagan Nath aka Bhola’s petition for freedom fighters’ pension. Awarded “Tamarpatra” on August 15, 1972, he was seeking the pension on the ground of killing the Brit.

Bhola claimed that in 1943 he threw Captain Miss Heran out of the train, causing her death, as part of the freedom movement. Bhola said he was tried for murder and voluntarily causing hurt while committing robbery under Section 302 and 394 of the IPC. He was then sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life by the Gujranwala Sessions Judge on March 25, 1947.

Bhola was initially lodged at the Gujranwala Central Jail. After Partition, he was transferred to the Ferozepur Central Jail on November 4, 1948. He was released on October 28, 1950, following a Punjab Government communication dated October 14,1950.

Bhola’s petition, filed in 2001, came up for hearing before Justice Surya Kant nearly 12 years after Centre turned down his plea for pension “in accordance with the Swatantarata Sainani Samman Pension Scheme of 1980”.

His case for freedom fighters' pension was recommended first on February 22, 1974, and again on October 15, 1985, by the Punjab Government. But, it was rejected by the Union of India on the premise that the “commission of such a heinous offence does not, and cannot, relate to the freedom movement of the nation”.

Murder or sacrifice

A certificate issued by the Ferozepur Central Jail authorities provides testimony to the effect that he was indeed sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment “in a case of murder and robbery”. But record relating to his imprisonment during the freedom movement is not available.

Taking up his plea, Justice Surya Kant observed: “The crucial issue, in my considered view is whether the murder of a woman of British origin was committed by the petitioner as a result of his perception that Independence could be achieved through violent means or was a case of simpliciter murder, with or without the motive of robbery, of a hapless woman irrespective of her nationality”.

Diplomatic channel

Justice Surya Kant asserted the question could be effectively answered after going through the contents of the Gujranwala Sessions Judge’s judgement. Justice Surya Kant said in his application form for grant of Swatantarata Sainani Samman Pension, Bhola had stated that he was sentenced to death by Ismail, the then Sessions Judge of Lahore, in 1946, though he remained lodged at the Gujranwala jail.

“ Copies of the judgments are the only conclusive proof to determine the petitioner’s status and the same, in my considered view, can be obtained by the Centre by invoking its diplomatic channel through the Consulate-General of Pakistan in India at New Delhi.

“The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with a direction to the Centre to invoke its diplomatic channel, obtain the copies of the judgments, whether of the Gujranwala Sessions Judge or the Lahore Sessions Judge, whereby the petitioner was convicted”.