Delhi Conspiracy Case 1912- Rasbehari Ghosh, Sachin Sanyal

On the crisp morning of 23 December 1912, Delhi was decked up to welcome the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge on the occasion of the capital’s transfer from Calcutta to Delhi. At a building in Chandni Chowk, a petite woman could be seen waiting with the crowd to see the Viceroy, and then a bomb exploded. Basant Biswas, a young boy of 16 years, had dressed up as a woman and thrown a crude bomb at the elephant carrying the Viceroy. Hardinge escaped with injuries. Rash Behari was the mastermind behind the attack and helped make the bomb. After the blast, Bose went back to his government job at the Forest Research Institute and even organised an honorary reception for Hardinge a few months later.

The Delhi Conspiracy case, also known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy, refers to a conspiracy in 1912 to assassinate the then Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, on the occasion of transferring the capital of British India from Calcutta to New Delhi. Hatched by the Indian revolutionary underground in Bengal and Punjab and headed by Rash Behari Bose, the conspiracy culminated on the attempted assassination on 23 December 1912 when a homemade bomb was thrown into the Viceroys's Howdahwhen the ceremonial procession moved through the Chandni Chowk suburb of Delhi. Although injured in the attempt, the Viceroy escaped with flesh wounds, but his Mahout was killed in the attack. Lady Hardinge was unscathed. Lord Hardinge himself was injured all over the back, legs, and head by fragments of the bomb, the flesh on his shoulders being torn in strips.^[1]

In the aftermath of the event, efforts were made to destroy the Bengali and Punjabi revolutionary underground, which came under intense pressure for some time. Rash Behari successfully evaded capture for nearly three years, becoming involved in the Ghadar conspiracy before it was uncovered, and fleeing to Japan in 1916.

The investigations in the aftermath of the assassination attempt led to the Delhi Conspiracy trial. The case was filed against Lala Hanumant Sahai, Basant Kumar Biswas, Bhai Balmukund, Amir Chand and Avadh Behari. On 5 October 1914, Lala Hanumant Sahai was sentenced to life imprisonmemt in the Andamans and the other four were sentenced to death for their roles in the conspiracy. Rash Behari Bose^[2] was identified as the person who threw the bom