The humble freedom fighter

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

It was on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Indian Independence (1997) that The Hindustan Times, the newspaper I worked for back then, started a series – I Remember: 50 Years of Freedom, and I met the last surviving member of the famous Train Dacoity of Kakori. Manmathnath Gupt was 89 then.

Today, 93 years after the daring act was undertaken by Manmathnath Gupt and eight other freedom fighters including Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and Chandrashekhar Azad, I bring to you the story which was published in the HT on August 20, 1997. Manmathnath Gupt passed away three years later, on October 26, and I once again had the honour of penning an obituary of the great freedom fighter which was published on October 31.

Here is the clipping of the The Hindustan Times dated August 20, 1997: