The Kakori Train Action was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925, during the Indian independence movement against the British Raj in India. It was organised by the Indian revolutionaries of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
The action was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan who were members of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which later became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. The HRA was established to carry out revolutionary activities against the British Raj with the objective of achieving independence. Since the organisation needed money for the purchase of weaponry, Bismil and his party made a plan to rob a train on the Saharanpur railway lines. The robbery plan was executed by Bismil, Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshab Chakravarthy, Manmath Nath Gupta, Mukundi Lal, Murari Lal Khanna, Vishnu Sharan Dublish and Banwari Lal. One passenger was killed.
On 9 August 1925, the Number 8 Down Train was travelling from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow. When it passed Kakori, one of the revolutionaries, Rajendra Lahiri, pulled the emergency chain to stop the train, and subsequently, the other revolutionaries overpowered the guard. It is believed that they looted that specific train because it was carrying tax money in money bags which were en route to the British government treasury.They looted only these bags (which were present in the guard's cabin and contained about ₹8000) and escaped to Lucknow. The objectives of this robbery were to:
Fund the HRA with money that the British administration had taxed from Indians.
Protest against the British administration's excessive tax collection from Indians.
Garner public attention by creating a positive image of the HRA among Indians.
One lawyer, Ahmad Ali, who was a passenger, had got down to see his wife in the women's compartment and was killed by a bullet fired by Manmath Nath Gupta. This escalated the case to manslaughter. Following the incident, the British administration started an intense manhunt and arrested several of the revolutionaries who were members or part of the HRA. Their leader, Ram Prasad Bismil was arrested in Shahjahanpur on 26 October 1925 and Ashfaqulla Khan was arrested on 7 December 1926 in Delhi.
Forty people were arrested from all over India. Their names (with the place and date of arrest) are:
Chandra Dhar Johri – 19 November 1925 (1)
Chandra Bhal Johri – 15 November 1925 (2)
Shitala Sahai – 2 November 1925 (3)
Jyoti Shankar Dixit – 11 November 1925 (4)
Bhupendra Nath Sanyal – 16 December 1925 (5)
Veer Bhadra Tiwari – 31 October 1925 (6)
Manmath Nath Gupta – 26 September 1925 (7)
Damodar Swarup Seth – 28 September 1925 (8)
Ram Nath Pandey – 27 September 1925 (9)
Dev Dutt Bhattacharya – 21 October 1925 (10)