Nasik Conspiracy Case

The Nasik Conspiracy Case was an anti-colonial judicial trial resulting from the assassination of Arthur William Trevor Jackson, the District Magistrate of Nasik, on December 21, 1909. The case brought to light the extensive underground network of the Abhinav Bharat Society and marked an important chapter in the history of revolutionary nationalism in Western India.

Background and Immediate Causes

The trial was directly connected to the repressive actions taken by the colonial administration against Indian revolutionaries in the Bombay Presidency.

• Sentence of Ganesh Savarkar: In June 1909, District Magistrate A. M. T. Jackson sentenced Ganesh Damodar (Babarao) Savarkar, brother of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, to transportation for life (Kalapani) on charges of publishing nationalist poems titled Laghu Abhinav Bharat Mela.
• Retaliation Plot: Members of the Abhinav Bharat Society viewed the conviction of Babarao as an act of administrative high-handedness and decided to execute Jackson before his scheduled transfer to Poona.
• Supply of Weapons: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar dispatched twenty Browning semi-automatic pistols along with ammunition from London via courier, hiding them in the false bottoms of luggage carried by Chaturbhuj Amin.

The Assassination at Vijayanand Theatre

On the evening of December 21, 1909, a farewell function was organized for A. M. T. Jackson at the Vijayanand Theatre in Nasik.

• Execution of the Plan: Anant Laxman Kanhere, an eighteen-year-old member of Abhinav Bharat from Aurangabad, approached Jackson as he entered the theatre and shot him multiple times with a Browning pistol.
• Immediate Arrest: Jackson died on the spot. Kanhere made no attempt to escape or commit suicide, allowing himself to be arrested immediately at the venue.

Investigation and Judicial Trial

The police investigation uncovered a wider conspiracy involving multiple cells of Abhinav Bharat operating across Maharashtra, Goa, and London.

• Arrests and Mass Roundups: The police arrested thirty-eight individuals, including key organizers, weapon suppliers, and financiers linked to the revolutionary group.
• Special Tribunal Trial: The trial took place before a Special Tribunal of the Bombay High Court under the Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act.
• The Judgment: The tribunal passed its final judgment on March 29, 1910. Three primary conspirators were sentenced to capital punishment, while others received varying terms of imprisonment and transportation.

Extradition and Trial of V. D. Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was arrested in London on March 13, 1910, under the Fugitive Offenders Act of 1881.

• The Marseilles Escape Attempt: While being brought back to India on the merchant vessel S.S. Morea, Savarkar squeezed out of a porthole and swam ashore at the French port of Marseilles on July 8, 1910. He was re-arrested on French soil by British guards with the assistance of a local French gendarme.
• The Hague International Case: France later claimed that British authorities violated French national sovereignty by arresting Savarkar on foreign territory without extradition proceedings. The case went to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague (France v. Great Britain, 1911). The court decided that Great Britain was not required to return Savarkar to France, though it recognized an irregularity in his arrest.
• Final Sentence: Savarkar stood trial in a separate branch of the Nasik Conspiracy Case, receiving two consecutive sentences of transportation for life totaling fifty years. He was transferred to the Andaman Cellular Jail in June 1911.

Essential Facts

• Anant Laxman Kanhere, Krishnaji Gopal Karve, and Vinayak Ramchandra Deshpande were executed at the Thane Central Jail on April 19, 1910.
• The Browning pistol used by Kanhere to shoot Jackson bore the serial number 44330.
• A. M. T. Jackson was a scholar of Sanskrit and Marathi literature, which made his assassination surprising to the British administration.
• The legal precedent set by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Marseilles case remains a classic case study in international law regarding state sovereignty and asylum rights.
• Abhinav Bharat was formally declared an unlawful association by the colonial government following the conclusion of the trial.