CM memorial plan for martyr trio

KOLKATA: The state government is planning a memorial for Benoy, Badal and Dinesh on the first floor of Writers' Buildings where the trio had shot Colonel NS Simpson in 1930.
At present, there is a plaque on the wall of the VIP corridor to commemorate the heroic act. But the CM is keen on much more. On Friday, senior officials at Writers' Buildings said that the chief minister wanted a memorial with busts of the three heroes at the spot where the incident had taken place.Other memorabilia associated with them may also be placed there.
Writers' Buildings witnessed the battle of bullets during the country's freedom movement. On December 8, 1930, Benoy Krishna Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta had burst into the first-floor corridor of power in the famous red building, intending to strike terror and kill Colonel Simpson, the inspector-general of prisons who was infamous for his brutal oppression of prisoners.
Benoy, Badal and Dinesh got into Writers' dressed as Europeans so they wouldn't draw any suspicion. They shot Simpson and a gunbattle ensued between the British police and the three young revolutionaries. Police overpowered them and the trio adopted different ways to evade arrest. Badal consumed potassium cyanide, while Benoy and Dinesh turned the revolvers on themselves. Benoy died later in a hospital and Dinesh, who survived, was ordered to be hanged till death on July 7, 1931. Years later, Dalhousie Square was renamed after the trio.
Writers' Buildings has 13 blocks now. On the first floor, the memorial may be created in the room where urban development minister Firhad Hakim now sits, adjoining the plaque. He will shift to another room once that is ready, and then Hakim's present room is likely to be converted into the memorial.