Plea filed to bring Bhagat Singh's trial record from India

A petition has been filed in a court in Pakistan pleading to bring back the trial record of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh from India which is required to reopen his case here.

"Former acting chief justice of Pakistan Rana Bhagwandas had handed over the trial record of Bhagat Singh to Haryana High Court during his visit to India in 2006...," Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation's chairman Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi said in the petition filed in the sessions court Lahore yesterday.

He asked the court to order the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif government to provide him with the record in order to present it before the Lahore High Court for reopening Bhagat Singh's case.

Qureshi said he needed complete judicial record of Bhagat Singh's trial, conducted by a special tribunal in 1930, to plead his (Singh) innocence in the murder of the then British police officer, John P Saunders.

Additional district and sessions judge Muhammad Arshad Ali asked the petitioner to come up with arguments whether the court had the jurisdiction to issue the required direction.The judge adjourned hearing till May 19.

Earlier, the Lahore police searched through the record of the Anarkali police station on court's order and managed to find the FIR registered against Bhagat Singh for allegedly killing Saunders and handed over a copy to Qureshi.

In the FIR registered at the Anarkali Police station in 1928, names of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were not mentioned. It was registered against unknown attackers.Qureshi said special judges of tribunal handling Bhagat Singh's case awarded death sentence to him without hearing 450 witnesses of the case.

Singh's lawyers were not given the opportunity of cross-questioning them, he said.The Lahore High Court has referred the case to the chief justice for constitution of a larger bench to hear the reopening of the Singh's case.

Bhagat Singh was awarded the death sentence for killing Saunders and he was subsequently hanged at Shadman Chowk in Lahore in 1931, aged just 23.