23 years old Hero

10th December, 1928,

In a meeting HSRA leaders decided their next steps. Rajguru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh wanted revenge. And it was decided that James Scott, the British police superintendent who had ordered the Lathi charge that led to Lala Lajpat Rai being martyred, had to be killed.

The HSRA members claimed that such a drostic step was necessary to involve the youth in revolution. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Chandra Shekhar Azad volunteer for this. Because Sukhdev was important for the party's strategy, he was tasked with only the planning and not the execution.

While planning the operation, they decided that Bhagat Singh would assasinat James Scott, Rajguru will cover him, and Chandra Shekhar Azad would help them escape. Jai Gopal (revolutionary) was told to inform the when James Scott reached the police station. He was told to memorize James Scott's car number 6798. They decided on the date for this attack, 17th December 1928. Two days before this date, the four young men rehearse for their role. Despite releasing, the four couldn't even had imagined how that day would play out.

17th December 1928, Lahore. Jai Gopal spotted James Scott and immediately informed Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru that "James Scott in the police station and could leave anytime."

As soon as James Scott took a turn, two young men suddenly appeared before him of whom Rajguru took his aim and shot.

But there was a problem. The man who was shot dead by Rajguru wasn't James Scott. James Scott had already left the station to receive his mother in law who was coming to India from England. The man killed by Rajguru was James Scott's 21 year old assistant, John Saunders.

Jai Gopal, who was supposed to identify Scott, had made a mistake. He had identified the wrong person. John Saunders was badly injured, Bhagat Singh approached him and shot 4 more rounds.

But after his mistake, the four followed their plan. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru ran towards DAV College where Chandra Shekhar Azad was covering for them. But two people had seen them killing John Saunders and were now chasing after them. Constable Chandan Singh and Traffic policeman W Fern. Constable followed the revolutionaries to the DAV College. Chandra Shekhar Azad warned him not to follow them, because he didn't want to attack an Indian. But the constable didn't stop. And so Rajguru shot the constable. He and Bhagat Singh then jumped over a wall and fled the scene on their cycle.

A few days after the murder, there were posters pasted all over Lahore signed by Balraj. This was Chandra Shekhar Azad's pseudonym or fake name. The posters mention that "Saunders is dead! " and "Lala Lajpat Rai is revenged!."

But Mahatma Gandhi stated that these revolutionaries did not show bravery. Rather, he called them cowards. But Gandhi also said that the British government was inciting the Indian youth by killing leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai.

But by them from the British pov the revolutionaries had crossed the line. Every police personnel in Lahore was told to block all roads and railway exits and that is was their duty to find the assassins. While Lahore's entire police force was looking for them, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Rajguru and Bhagat Singh were hiding in a safe house.

Now, they had planned the attack very well. But fleeing the city after the attack while being hunted by the Lahore police wasn't in their plans.

Sukhdev Thapar the mastermind of the group, came up with a plan. He took everyone to a nationalist leader's wife Durgawati Devi to hide. He planned to take a train from Lahore to Calcutta. But the train station would be full of police personnel. So he planned to have Durgawati Devi change her identify and call herself Sujata. Bhagat Singh would be in disguise as Sujata's husband, Ranjit and Rajguru would be their servants.

Bhagat Singh reached Calcutta. Coincidentally, this was during Congress Calcutta Session. He attended this. After attending, he was disappointed because Congress was still an upper class dominated party. Soon after he left Calcutta and went to Agra where he had several revolutionary friends, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Rajguru and Sukhdev. In these meetings, they discussed Saunder's death didn't give them the result they had hoped. The British weren't shaken up. Instead, they became stricter. So Bhagat Singh and his comrades decided to do something bigger.