On this date in 1927, Bengali revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri was hanged by the British colonial government for his part in a notorious train robbery.
The 35-year-old post graduate was one of ten members of the anti-British Hindustan Republican Association involved in daringly robbing the Number 8 Down Train in Uttar Pradesh two years before — the so-called Kakori train robbery.
They escaped with a supply of treasury money to fund their operations. Perhaps more importantly, they struck a spectacular public blow against the empire.
Four of the conspirators were condemned to hang, to considerable popular outrage. Lahiri died first, and though less illustrious than ringleaders Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan who would follow in the next few days, is like them now remembered as a martyr for independence
On this day..
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