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Mandalay Conspiracy Case
Mandalay Conspiracy Case was a resounding effort on behalf of the daring crusaders, which turned unsuccessful.

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Many other Ghadr leaders sentenced in Mandlay Conspiracy Cases were also expatriated to the Andamans. The Ghadr Movement leaders who had reached Burma were performing laudably well to achieve their goal of circularising the Ghadr message and enticing the troops. Pt. Sohan Lai Pathak of Patti developed a friendship with Kirpa Ram, a teacher in the Army School at Rangoon (Burma) and he became a member of the Ghadr Party. Bhai Kala Singh Naik and Bhai Partap Singh, both teachers, were also enrolled as members of the party. Chet Ram also opened the Ghadr centre by renting a room on 16, Dufrin Road, Rangoon. Muztaba Hussain persisted over the Khilafat leaders to join the Ghadr Party. Ali Ahmed Sadiqui also joined the Ghadr Party and Ghadr literature was being read and distributed by him. A number of other Ghadrites had taken up their work industriously and secretly. However, in April 1915, the Ghadr conspiracy in Burma was revealed to the authorities when a bundle of Ghadr literature was nabbed by them. Otherwise also, scrutiny and checking was reinforced everywhere in Burma and around its borders after the failure of Ghadr Movement in India.

Ali Ahmed Sadiqui and Fian Ali were arrested. Chet Ram and Muztaba Hussain were arrested in Siam. Bhai Hardit Singh Lame, Bhai Kapur Singh Mohi, Bhai Naranjan Singh Sangatpura, Bhai Atma Singh were some of the Mandalay Conspiracy Case accused also nailed in Burma. Immediately after that, seventeen other Ghadr leaders including Buddha Singh Failoke, Babu Amar Singh Engineer Sherpur, Bhai Inder Singh, Bhai Gian Singh Mori Maral (Lahore), Ram Rakha Sasoli (Hoshiarpur) were arrested. Babu Harnam Singh Sahri was also arrested in Myavadi in Burma.

Pt. Sohan Lai Pathak, who entered the Topkhana of 23rd Battalion in the Memion Cantonment to contact the link official for enticing the jawans, was also arrested on 14th August 1915.

The trial of Pt. Sohan Lai Pathak took place before the sessions judge, Mandlay in December 1915 for waging war against the king. Sohan Lai did not turn hostile even during the taxing interrogation. Once when the Lt. governor of Burma came to the jail for inspection, he told Sohan Lai Pathak to submit an apology on which his life would be saved. Sohan Lai Pathak told the lieutenant governor that all the iniquity and cruelties were being committed by the British; they had entered India by force and were ruling the country by force and if somebody had to apologise, it ought be the British. Even on the day when he was being taken to the gallows, a British magistrate on the orders of higher authorities again tried to persuade him to submit an apology on which his death sentence would be commuted, but Sohan Lai Pathak simply smiled and refused. On the repeated persuasions of the magistrate, Pathak told him to do his job and let him do his duty. He kissed the gallows on 10th February 1916 in Mandlay jail and attained martyrdom.

The other two cases tried in Burma are known as Mandlay Conspiracy Cases. As in Lahore, a Special Tribunal was set up under the Defence of India Act in Mandlay. In the first Mandlay Conspiracy Case (1916) judgement was delivered on 22nd September 1916. In this case, Babu Harnam Singh Sahri, Chalia Ram Sahnewal (Ludhiana), Bhai Wasawa Singh Wara (Hoshiarpur), Bhai Narain Singh Balo, Bhai Naranjan Singh Sangatpura, Bhai Pala Singh Sherpur (Ludhiana) were sentenced to death and were executed. Kirpa Ram was sentenced to death, but his sentence was converted to life imprisonment.

Six patriots, convicted in the case with the following particulars, were sent to Andamans to undergo their sentences:

• Chet Ram, son of Bishan Dass Arora of village Vairowal, Police Station Sambrawal, Syalkot (now in Pakistan).


• Jiwan Singh, son of Ishar Singh Brahman of village Philloke, Police Station Qilla Didar Singh, Gujranwala (now in Pakistan).


• Bhai Kapur Singh Mohi, son of Mit Singh, of village Mohi, Police Station Dhaka, District Ludhiana.


• Hardit Singh, son of Bhagwan Singh of village Lamme Jatpura, District Ludhiana.


• Kirpa Ram, School Master, son of Brij Lai of village Kutala shahi Fatia, Gujarat, Punjab (now in Pakistan).


• Budha Singh, son of Sham Singh of village Philloke, Police Station Qilla Didar Singh Gujranwala (now in Pakistan).

Budha Singh attained martyrdom in the Andamans. In the second Mandlay Conspiracy Case, some more patriots were declared guilty under sections 121, 121-AIPC on 7th July 1917. Muztaba Hussain alias Mul Chand Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), Babu Amar Singh Engineer s/o Waryam Singh, Jat of village Sherpur (Ludhiana) and Ali Ahmed Sadiqui, s/o Kurban All Pathan (Shahzadpur) were condemned to death. The death sentence of Muztaba Hussain was maintained, whilst the death sentences of Amar Singh Engineer and Ali Ahmad Sadiqui were converted to deportation for life and they were sent to the Cellular Jail. Ram Rakha Sasoli, s/o Jawahari Ram of village Sasoli, district Hoshiarpur was sentenced to expatriation for life. He was also sent to the Andamans.

Some of the jawans of 23rd Risala stationed at Mian Mir in Lahore were comforters of the Ghadr patriots, but the authorities were unable to distinguish the jawans who were in touch with Ghadr leaders. After 19th February 1915, this Risala (Cavalry) was sent to the war front and its headquarters were shifted to Nagaon Cantonment (U.R). On 13th May 1915, when the luggage of these jawans was being loaded from the railway station in a cart for taking to the cantonment, a box of Dafedar Wadhawa Singh fell down and a bomb kept inside it exploded. The luggage was searched. Another bomb was found in the box of Wadhawa Singh. He was arrested and all the past links of Ghadr leaders with individual jawans were now known to the authorities. The jawans of 23rd Risala involved in the Ghadr Movement, namely Dafedar Lachhman Singh and Dafedar Wadhawa Singh Ruriwala and eighteen other jawans were summoned back from the battlefield and were court-martialled in Digshai. Dafedar Lachhman Singh Chuslewarh, Defedar Wadhawa Singh Ruriwala, Bhag Singh, Mota Singh, Tara Singh Ruriwalia, Inder Singh Jeowala, Inder Singh Swajpur, Buta Singh Kasel, Gujer Singh Lahoke, Jetha Singh Lahuke, Budh Singh Dhotian and Abdula Nahalband (Lahore) were sentenced to death and executed.

The following were also sentenced to death for the Mandalay Conspiracy, but their sentences were converted to transportation for life:

• Bishen Singh Dhotian, aged 29 years, son of Jiwan Singh, 23rd Cavalry Platoon Soldier No.1526.


• Bishen Singh Dhotian, son of Ram Singh of village Sarhali, District (Punjab), Solider No.1945 of 23rd Cavalry Platoon.


• Natha Singh Dhotian, aged 29 years, son of Sada Singh of village Sarhali, District Amritsar, Sepoy No.1393 in 23rd Cavalry Platoon.


• Kehar Singh alias Kesri alias Kesar Singh, aged 27 years, son of Bhagat Singh of village Sarhali, District Amritsar (Punjab) Solider No.1523 of 23rd Cavalry Platoon.


• Chanan Singh Dhand Kasel, aged 24 years, son of Natha Singh of village Dhand Kasel, District Amritsar, Punjab, belonged to 23rd Cavalry Sepoy No. 1775.


• Nand Singh Raike Burjan, aged 37 years, son of Punjab Singh of Layalpur, Punjab (now in Pakistan) Sepoy No.1327 of 23rd Cavalry Platoon.

They were send off to the Andamans.


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