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

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O. P. 166. this. The reason was that in the main case Mr. Mitra of the
Associated Press had arranged for the presence of some outsiders
and the accused in that case had made serious allegations against
Mr. Mitra and other sympathisers. Consequently nobody would
come forward to help Ashfaqullah (or Bakshi) in the same way.
The note recorded by the magistrate (Ex. P. A. 50) shows that five
other men were paraded with Ashfaqullah. All, including Ashfaq-
ullah, wore convict's dress. The frontier convicts, whom the magis-
trate considered himself fortunate to obtain for the purpose,
resembled Ashfaqullah in features "and had hair on the head and 10
moustaches and beard like him. Even their colour was similar to
his and also to a more or less extent their height". Before the
proceedings started Ashfaqullah again complained about his photo-
graph. The following passage from the note is also important in
view of the allegations made by Ashfaqullah:—"Ashfaqullah having
black nail on his left foot thumb I allowed him to conceal it by
placing a red cap over his feet and this was done by all the
men mixed up with him. At his own request I allowed him to take
off his own clothes and put on convict's dress............All the
five men mixed with him had exactly similar dress. They had small 20
beard like him and were Mohammadan Pathans having small beard
and moustache. After the proceedings were over Ashfaqullah
showed me a dim wart on his left temple. He never brought this
fact to my notice as he had done with the black nail. As it is no
witness ever had a look at his or any one else's temple or at
their feet. They looked straight into their faces and identified him
without any hesitation in a natural manner".
As regards the complaint that the magistrate did not arrange
for Ashfaqullah to be legally represented at the proceedings
O. P. 167 the magistrate's evidence shows that he told Ashfaqullah's brother 30
Riyasatullah on the Delhi railway station that he was taking him
to Lucknow and that he should also come to look after his inter-
ests. He informed the vakils for some of the accused in the main
case when identification proceedings would take place, because
they had made a written request to that effect. There was no
such request in Ashfaqullah's case. Ashfaqullah had been under
arrest for three weeks before the proceedings and his relatives
could have made arrangements for him to be legally represented
if they had wished to. They were able to engage a vakil for him
in the magistrate's court, although their means were insufficient to 40
retain him in this court, for which reason Ashfaqullah has been
defended in this court at Government expense. But the magistrate
was under no obligation of any kind to arrange for his legal repre-
sentation at the identification proceedings; it is by no means the us-
ual course for an accused to be represented at such proceedings, and
I see no reason whatever to think that the case of the accused has
been in any way prejudiced by the absence of a legal representa-
tive. Nor do I see any reason to think that the police have taken