अमर शहीद अशफ़ाक़उल्ला ख़ाँ: व्यक्तित्व और कृतित्व (काकोरी के अमर शहीद का जीवन व रचनाएँ)

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O. P. 121. were l. oking out of the window the other side of the carriage, that
is, they had their backs to the platform.
(iii) The mistakes made by Abdul Wadud in identification.
(iv) The mistakes made by the guard in identification.
(v) The long grass by the side of the line would have im-
peded the view of the witnesses.
(vi) The guard Jagannath Prasad must have known Ashfaq-
ullah before as they had both been at the Mission School, Shah-
jahanpur. Moreover Ashfaqullah was often at the Shahjahanpur
railway station. 10
(vii) As Dr. Gupta had only a pass for an inter class compart-
ment it is improbable that he was in a second class carriage.
I take these arguments in the order given.
(i) It is admitted that the carriages were lighted at the time
of the dacoity but it is submitted that the light from the carriages
would not be sufficiently bright to show up people walking along-
side and that there was little or no daylight left. The register
Ex. P. 80, produced by Babu Ali Murad, assistant station master,
Kakori, shows that the 8 down train arrived at 7-17 p. m. and left
at 7-19 p. m. He says that his lantern had not been lighted when 20
the train arrived at Kakori. The evidence of the other witnesses
is to the effect that there was still some daylight left. Dr. Gupta
says that there were some clouds about but not enough to have any
effect on the light. The guard says there were no clouds when the
train stopped but there were when it started again. Abdul Wadud
says that the sun had set at the time of the dacoity but there was
O. P. 122. still some daylight. Mirza Ahmad Shah (P. W. 7) who was travell-
ing by the train says there was a little daylight left when the
dacoity occurred. Babu Sital Prasad (P. W. 16) assistant station
master, Alamnagar, says that 'the sun was setting when the 8 down 30
train arrived at my station in those days' i. e. on normal days. So
too Baiju (P. W. 17). From this evidence I conclude that there was
sufficient daylight at the beginning of the dacoity for the witnesses
to distinguish the dacoits they were near to, taking into considera-
tion also the fact that there must have been some light from the
carriages.
(ii) It is true that according to the assistant station master's
register the train only stopped two minutes at Kakori. The prose-
cution have argued that such entries are made every day as a
matter of course and cannot be absolutely depended upon. Wheth- 40
er this is so or not I see no reason to think that there was not time
for the ice vendor, Abdul Wadud, to have a casual glance at the
men in the second class carriage. The fact that two of them were
looking out of the opposite window when Babu Sukhnandan looked