द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

CHAPTER VII IN BURMESE PRISONS¹ (1925-27) IN the early hours of the morning of October 25th, 1924, I was roused from my sleep as I was wanted by some police- officers. The Deputy-Commissioner of Police, Calcutta, on meeting me, said: 'Mr. Bose, I have a very unpleasant duty to perform. I have a warrant for your arrest under Regulation III of 1818." He then produced another warrant authorising him to search my house for arms, explosives, ammunition, etc. Since no arms, etc., were forthcoming, he had to content himself with taking a pile of papers and correspondence. To avoid public attention, he drove me to prison in his own car -but so utterly unexpected was my arrest that known faces, whom I met on my way, never thought that my destination was His Majesty's Prison at Alipore. At the Alipore New Central Jail I was surprised to find that there were others in the same boat with me. The prison authorities did not seem to be happy to receive us. Special arrangements had to be made for segregating us from the rest of the prison population and they had hardly any surplus accommodation. As the day advanced, our numbers began to swell and to our great delight (there is nothing so welcome in prison as companion- ship) when the time for evening lock-up came, we found that we were eighteen in number. As I was the Chief Executive Officer of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation at the time, my sudden arrest dis- located the work of the Municipality. The Government therefore gave special orders that till the beginning of Decem- ber I could attend to my office work in prison and that my Secretary could see me from time to time with office files and documents. In all these interviews a police-officer would ¹ The writer has been in custody eight times but he has tried to chronicle the events of only one such experience, since it is more interesting than the others. 149