Muzaffarpur Conspiracy Case was about a revolutionary conspiracy by the Khudiram Bose and Praful Chaki to kill the Chief Presidency Magistrate DH Kingsford of Muzaffarpur.⁣
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Prafulla Chaki committed suicide when he was about to be arrested by the Police. While Khudiram Bose got arrested.⁣
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The historical trial started on 21 May 1908, presided by Judge Corndoff and Janak Prasad in the Jury. Along with Khudiram, two others were tried for assisting the revolutionaries in their mission — Mrityunjay Chakraborty and Kishorimohan Bandopadhyay, who had accommodated Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki in his Dharmashala for their mission. Mrityunjay died during the trial, and subsequently, the trial of Kishorimohan was separated from that of Khudiram.⁣
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Lawyers Kalidas Basu, Upendranath Sen, and Kshetranath Bandopadhyay took up Khudiram’s defence. They were joined later in the trial by Kulkamal Sen, Nagendra Lal Lahiri, and Satischandra Chakraborty—all of them fighting the case without any fees, fighting for their country.⁣
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On 23 May, Khudiram resubmitted his statement to magistrate E.W. Bredhowd, denying any involvement or responsibility in any aspect or stage of the entire mission and operation down to the bombing. Initially, he was not ready to sign this statement but did so after persuasion from his lawyers. ⁣
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It made the Defence lawyers believed that⁣ Khudiram’s age should make the judge deliver sentencing other than death. But, to the disappointment to all, the Judge pronounced the death sentence for Khudiram.⁣
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Khudiram’s immediate and spontaneous response was to smile. The judge, surprised, asked Khudiram whether he had understood the meaning of the pronounced sentence. Khudiram replied that he surely had.⁣
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When the judge asked him again whether he had anything to say, in front of a packed audience, Khudiram replied with the same smile that if he could be given some time, he could teach the judge the skill of bomb-making. ⁣
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The Amrita Bazar Patrika, one of the prominent dailies of that era, carried the story of the hanging the next day, on 12 August. Under the headline “Khudiram’s End: Died cheerful and smiling.”