Badal Gupta

Date of Birth : 1912
Date of Death : 1930
Place of Birth : Dhaka


Badal Gupta was a Bengali Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. Badal Gupta was born Sudhir Gupta in the village Purba Shimulia (West Shimulia) in the Vikrampur region of Dhaka District, now in Bangladesh. Badal was greatly inspired towards patriotism by Nikunja Sen, a teacher of the Banaripara School of Vikrampur. Badal joined the Bengal Volunteers (BV) as a member. Bengal Volunteers targetted Col NS Simpson,The Inspector General of Prisons, who was infamous for the brutal oppression on the prisoners in the jails.
The revolutionaries decided not only to murder him, but also to strike a terror in the British official circles by launching an attack on the Secretariat Building - the Writers' Building in the Dalhousie square in Kolkata. On 8 December 1930, Badal along with Dinesh chandra Gupta and Benoy, dressed in European costume, entered the Writers' Building and shot dead Simpson. British police started firing.What ensued was a brief gunfight between the 3 young revolutionaries and the police.Some other officers like Twynam, Prentice and Nelson suffered injuries during the shooting. Soon police overpowered them.However, the three did not wish to be arrested.Badal took Potassium cyanide, while Benoy and Dinesh shot themselves with their own revolvers.Badal died on the spot. The martyrdome and self-sacrifice of Benoy,Badal and Dinesh inspired further revolutionary activities in Bengal,in particular and India,in general. After independence, the dalsousie square was named B.B.D. Bagh - after the Benoy-Badal-Dinesh trio.