Khudiram Bose - The Muzaffarpur Killing

The Muzaffarpur Killing

Khudiram and Prafulla Chaki were sent to the region called Motijhil in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. On reaching the town, they took up residence in the 'dharmashala' of Kishorimohan Bandopadhyay. Both of them took on pseudonyms or "code names"—Khudiram adopted the name "Haren Sarkar", while Prafulla called himself "Dinesh Roy". Immediately after settling down, they started planning and preparing for the attack. They gave themselves a few days time to closely observe the daily routine, activities and movements of their target, Kingsford—taking note of his timings at the court, the club and his house. They did not want to risk the lives of innocent people by making an attack at the court during working hours. That led to the passing of a few more days, and finally they decided that Kingsford had to be attacked either during his ride from his house to the club, or vice-versa, when he would be alone. During this time, the two of them wrote to one of their mentors, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, the eminent revolutionary and the younger brother of Sri Aurobindo, whenever they needed money, addressing the Barindra with the code-name "Sukumar" for safety. to assassinate Kingsford, the Calcutta Presidency Magistrate, and later, magistrate of Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

On the evening of 30 April 1908, the duo waited in front of the gate of the European Club for the carriage of Kingsford to come. The time was around 8.30 pm. When the carriage came out, they responded quickly, holding their pistols in one hand as back-up and throwing their bombs. The hit was a success and the carriage blew up and started burning. The duo immediately left the place, covered themselves in the darkness, and reached the railways station, where they parted to escape any suspicion, boarding trains towards opposite directions. But back at the spot, their quick departure did not allow them to hear the cries of women's voices in the burning carriage, instead of Kingsford's. The carriage was occupied not by Kingsford but instead the wife and daughter of barrister Pringle Kennedy, a leading pleader of Muzaffarpur Bar. The occupants were killed in the explosion. The revolutionary duo fled. Prafulla committed suicide when cornered by police at the Samastipur Railway station. Khudiram, who was full of regret after learning that that it was not Kingsford but two women who had been killed, was later arrested at a location about 20 km from Samastipur and 12 km from Pusa Bazaar. The railway station where Khudiram was arrested while having tea was earlier known as Pusa Road and recently has been renamed as Khudiram Bose Pusa (KRB Pusa).