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

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of Ashta where Shahan Shah Khan is employed. Colonel Inamullah
Khan says that Ashfaqullah came to him and asked for a post in
the army. The witness replied that Her Highness and her son
were in Bangalore (not England) and that no final reply could be
given at the moment. As regards the date when this application
was made the witness'said; "It was in 1925. I am not sure of the
month; it was either July or August. I think it was either the end
of July or the beginning of August. I do not know the date and
as I have already said I am not sure about the month. It was the
rainy season. I had not seen him before nor did I see him after". 10
The witness also said that Ashfaqullah's application for employ-
ment was not kept. Clearly this evidence is not very helpful to
the defence.
110. The other witnesses, Majid Ali Khan, (D. W. 23) Inayat
Other witnesses. Khan (D. W. 24), Bhagwat Singh (D. W. 25),
Ahsan Ali (D. W. 26) and Muhammad
Ishaq (D. W. 27) all appear to be friends of Shahan Shah Khan.
Majid Ali Khan is a kanungo at Ashta. He says that he saw
Ashfaqullah there in 1923 and again in 1925. In the latter year he
first saw him towards the end of July. "He left Ashta five or six 20
days after the Muharram (1st August). He came back again two
days later and stayed eight or ten days at Ashta." He under-
stood that he had been to Bhopal to obtain a post in the army.
He can give no reason for remembering the date. Inayat Khan
is a clerk. He states that he saw Ashfaqullah eight or ten days
after the Muharram at Sihor in the Bhopal State. Ashfaqullah
was in a motor bus or lorry on his way back from Bhopal. The
witness spoke to him and Ashfaqullah told him that he had been
to Bhopal in search of employment. Though he thought the date
was eight or ten days after the Muharram the witness admitted 30
that it might have been only four or six days after or as many as
twelve or fifteen. He says that some other men in the motor
lorry, including Bhagwat Singh the next witness, were sitting in
front of Ashfaqullah. This witness says that he went from Sihor
to Ashta in the same motor lorry as Ashfaqullah and that the
date was the Hindi date corresponding to the 8th August.
He was in the main portion of the lorry while Ashfaqullah was
sitting in front with the driver. Ashfaqullah did not come into the
main portion at all. This does not agree with the evidence of
Inayat Khan. Ahsan Ali is a dismissed police official and at 40
present manager of a motor company. He was dismissed in
connection with the disappearance of some papers and was in the
Ashta lock-up in this connection for two months before being
acquitted. While he was in the lock-up his uncle came and told
him that his grandmother had died and that he should obtain the
permission of the district magistrate to join in the funeral cere-
mony. The jail dafadar then took him out of the lock-up to the
district magistrate but the latter refused to let him go. With the