RAS question
The INA trials (Red Fort Trials) tried:
Correct answer: (A) Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal, and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
The INA Red Fort Trials tried Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, three Indian National Army officers associated with the Azad Hind Fauj.
Explanation
The Red Fort Trials refer to the November 1945 proceedings against INA officers Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon for treason. PIB describes Colonel Prem Sahgal, Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Colonel Shahnawaz Khan as key figures in the Red Fort Trials and links the case to the Azad Hind Fauj's freedom struggle. Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon were the three officers tried together, unlike a single INA founder or a revolutionary group from a different case. Their defence by Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Jawaharlal Nehru, and the public sympathy the trials generated, make this a recurring modern-history marker.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev belonged to the Lahore Conspiracy Case, not the INA Red Fort Trials of 1945.
- (C) Captain Mohan Singh alone cannot fit because the Red Fort Trials concerned three INA officers tried together.
- (D) Subhas Chandra Bose was central to the Azad Hind Fauj's legacy, but this trial was of Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, and Bose reportedly died in 1945.
Concept
The national movement segment of modern Indian history includes the INA, post-war trials and the political mood before independence. RAS repeatedly asks such trial-personality links because they connect events, accused persons and nationalist response.