Bhavabhushan Mitra - The Kushtia Murder

The Kushtia Murder

In 1908, the Reverend J. Harvey Higginbotham of Kushtia, by running an industrial exhibition with British materials, dissatisfied the local Swadeshi people. He was also suspected of being a Government spy. Apparently interested in the Bible, Baladeb Ray and some other young men visited the Missionary. On 4 March 1908, the Missionary was killed late in the evening. Baladeb, Ganesh Das and two others were arrested. The case was tried by Ashutosh Biswas, Public Prosecutor. The jury acquitted the accused. Whereas this outrage is believed to have been committed by Barin’s party, a confidential deponent informed Denham that this was the work of the Kushtia Society, of which “Jatindra Nath Mukharji was the leading spirit.”

Later, on 25 June 1908, the approver Naren Gossain told the Magistrate of Alipore that Barin and Upen Banerjee had informed him of this murder and he had learnt that “Bhavabhushan of Jessore or Khulna, and Kshitish, both residing at Kushtia, were concerned in it.” Bhaba Bhusan Mitra “was very much mixed up with the Deoghar conspirators.”. While searching Sri Aurobindo’s house, in May 1908, the Police discovered there a bicycle from Kushtia, belonging probably to Bhavabhushan.

In April 1908, Bhavabhushan accompanied Bagha Jatin and his family to Darjeeling. Jatin had founded there active branches of the Kolkata Anushilan Samiti. Bhavabhushan has left a first-hand account of the way, at the Siliguri railway station, Jatin taught a substantial lesson to four conceited British army officers : the legal proceedings drawn up against Jatin had turned into such a sensation in the written press that the officers withdrew their complaint.

Sealy came to be informed that in April 1908 Barin had sent some machinery from Sil’s Lodge to his mother’s bungalow: believed to be deranged, she, Swarnalata Devi, “used to rush out with a sword whenever anyone approached the Raidih house.” Once Sri Aurobindo commented: “I am the insane son of an insane mother.” While her servants were busy burying the machinery under the direction of a “Bengali gentleman” (identified as Bhavabhushan), Swarnalata kept watch at the door. Moreover, one can easily evaluate his importance in the party hierarchy when Sealy records: “Mani Basu, Bhaba Bhusan, Subodh Mullick and two other Bengalis were seen in secret conversation in the compound of a ruined house.” Subodh “took a prominent part in the early revolutionary propaganda and was a staunch friend of Arabinda Ghosh,” and was to be one of the 1908 deportees. His wife was a friend of Hemangini Devi.