A man named Bhola, who killed a British woman in 1943 and was pronounced guilty then by a court now in Pakistan, is claiming a freedom fighter’s pension and has petitioned the Punjab and Haryana high court after being turned down by the Centre.
The court, in its latest observation, has asked the Union government to use diplomatic channels and get the original copies of the murder case judgment to determine whether the woman was killed as part of India’s struggle for freedom, or if it was plain murder.
The case goes back to 1943 when Bhola pushed a lady named Captain Miss Heran out of a moving train, thereby killing her. Bhola says he did this as part of India’s crusade for freedom. However, Bhola says he was tried for murder and robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) sessions judge in March 1947.
Bhola was initially lodged at Gujranwala central jail and after Partition was shifted to Ferozpur Central Jail in 1948. He was released in 1950 and was awarded a “Tamarpatra” in 1972 by the Punjab government. His case, though recommended twice by the Punjab government, was rejected by the Union government on the grounds that the “commission of such a heinous offence does not, and cannot, relate to the freedom movement of the nation”.
In the Ferozepur jail records the only information available was that he was sentenced to 20 years’ incarceration and records relating to his imprisonment during the freedom movement is not available.
Disposing of the petition, Justice Surya Kant asserted that this question could only be ascertained after going through the contents of the Gujranwala sessions judge’s judgment. “Copies of the judgment 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,” Justice Kant said.