The two men who witnessed against Bhagat Singh were Indians. They were Shobha Singh and Shadi Lal.
For this infidelity, both of them were rewarded with the title of ‘SIR’ by Britishers and of course, there were other underhand benefits.
Shobha Singh received humongous wealth and a number of goverment tenders. The Shobha Singh School (now Modern Public School) on Barakhamba Road, near Cannaught Place is one of the apparent consequences.
On the other hand, Shadi Lal got acres of land near Bagpat, UP and even today a number of sugar mills in Shyamali are owned by his successors.
The flak from Indians was obvious. When Shadi Lal died, shopkeepers denied to give even a piece of fabric to cover his corpse.
However, Shobha Singh was fortunate. Number of places were named after his father; Punjab’s Sujan Singh Gaon (village) and Delhi’s Sujan Singh park are named after his father.
Shobha Singh had a son, Khushwant Singh. He started to write articles and columns for various national dailies and in turn got into contact with many prominent personalities. He had just one aim – to establish his father’s image as that of a martyr.
He has written plethora of stories and articles, moulding historic events as per his opinion, some of which are bestsellers.
So, the fact that the celebrated author, Khushwant Singh was the son of a traitor, isn’t known to many.
For those who would say that stigma of an ancestor’s deed should not be attached to evade the contribution of their descendents. Well, it should be if the successor’s contribution was a result of wealth accumulated by their forefather’s treachery.
Khushwant Singh studied at Modern School, New Delhi (mentioned above), which is now a reputed institution of the city and went to King’s College, London for his higher education, which was extremely exceptional and rare for someone in British India.
No doubt he is an amazing writer, but he garnered the talent and skill from the high end institutions, which are a dream for some of us even after a century.
All this, if not from the wealth earned by misdeeds of his father, then how?
Edit – Khushwant Singh accused of twisting facts to shield father in Bhagat Singh case.
