Bardhaman railway station to be named after Batukeshwar Dutt: Nityanand Rai

PATNA: The Bardhaman railway station in West Bengal will be named after revolutionary freedom fighter Batukeshwar Dutt, who was born in that district but later made the Bihar capital his home, Union minister Nityanand Rai said here.

Rai, the Minister of State for Home and the Bihar BJP chief, made a statement to this effect on Saturday after paying a visit to the house here where Dutt stayed after Independence.

The Union minister visited the house, located in Jakkanpur locality, along with BJP national vice president Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the occasion of the death anniversary of Dutt where they also met his daughter Bharti Bagchi - the only surviving family member of the revolutionary.


Notably, a posh colony named after the revolutionary is situated close to AIIMS at New Delhi where Dutt breathed his last in 1965.

Born in a village of Bardhaman district in 1910, Dutt became associated with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association which was headed by Chandrashekhar Azad and he accompanied Bhagat Singh to the national assembly in Delhi where they courted arrest after throwing bombs and throwing revolutionary pamphlets while chanting the slogan "Inquilab zindabad".

While Bhagat Singh - who was also an accused in the murder of a British police official - was hanged to death, Dutt was sentenced for life and deported to a jail in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

After Independence, Dutt had settled down in Patna along with his wife Anjali who taught at a leading girls' school of the city.