Shaheed Udham Singh’s fingerprints discovered at Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur
Shaheed Udham Singh’s fingerprints discovered at Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur
Chandigarh: As the nation observes the 84th martyrdom year of Shaheed Udham Singh and a film on his life won five national awards on Thursday, the freedom fighter’s fingerprints lie hidden from the public eye in the closets of the Punjab Police Academy (PPA) at Phillaur.
Shaheed Udham Singh
The fingerprints were captured in 1927 when Udham Singh was arrested for holding a gathering of Ghadar Party activists. This correspondent, with the help of the Punjab Police, came across the rare document while searching for the fingerprints of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. The academy has been a repository of police case files, documents and weapons since 1860s, then known as the Military Police Force. It was rechristened the PPA in 1891. It’s the first time a photo of Udham Singh’s fingerprints has been published. Udham Singh had famously avenged the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919 by assassinating Michael O’Dwyer, a former colonial-era lieutenant governor, on March 13, 1940, in London.
Udham Singh, who insisted his name was Ram Mohammad Singh Azad—to show his secular preference—turned a hero back home after the assassination. He has since been a subject in books, songs, plays and films. Every year on his martyrdom day, there is a call to collect things attached to him and display those in a museum. However, many things like the fingerprints are lying hidden in government files or archives.
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