The discovery of a 19th century wall below the mortuary of the Maulana Azad Medical College on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg has led to various conjectures. It was constructed by the British in 1874 for what was then a jail. During the Mughal period, State prisoners were executed there. The head of Dara Shikoh was said to have been thrown nearby on the orders of his brother Aurangzeb, and the headless body buried in the vaults of Humayun’s Tomb.

Why was the Phansi Ghar, or hanging house, situated at this spot? Probably because it was on the outskirts of the city, as Shahjahanabad’s limits ended at Delhi Gate. Two sons and a grandson of Bahadurshah Zafar were also executed opposite the jail at the Khooni Darwaza.

Their bodies were thrown to rot in front of the Northbrook Fountain in Chandni Chowk.

In the early 20th century…

The alleged conspirators of the 1912 Hardinge Bomb Case – Master Amirchand, Master Awadh Behari, Basant Sanyal, and Lala Hanwant Sahai – were also incarcerated here. While the first three were hanged (Sanyal in Lahore), Hanwant Sahai was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andamans, his sentence later commuted to a jail term of seven years.

I met Lalaji in 1966 at his dingy abode in Chandni Chowk when he was an ailing octogenarian. He did not disclose the name of the freedom fighter who actually threw the bomb at Charles Hardinge when he was on his way in a State procession to the Red Fort.

The then Viceroy escaped death, though his elephant-keeper (mahout) was killed and he himself wounded.

Travellers on their way to Nizamuddin used to say that after the execution in early 1930s of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru, and Sukhdev — who were also probably kept at the British prison earlier—they often heard voices of the condemned prisoners from the jail.

Stories to tell

Samuel Joseph, who had found employment in the Agra Jail about the year 1892, had an interesting story to tell.

After being reprimanded by his mother and asked to find a job, a kind hearted sentry took Joseph to the jailor. He was told to report for duty the next day.

Joseph himself rose to become a jailor over the years. He later served in the Delhi Central Jail and also in a number of UP towns, where he once had the notorious Sultana Daku as his prisoner. He even earned a commendation medal from the British government.

According Joseph, the Delhi jail was actually built on the site of an inn or sarai, constructed by Sheikh Farid Khan, treasurer of Jahangir. Samuel, my grandfather Lazarus’ older brother, died in 1952. He used to say that Farid Khan was also instrumental in reclaiming land opposite the Agra Cathedral. This land belonged to the “Father of Mughal Christianity”, the Armenian Khwaja Zulquarnain. The plot was initially used as the city prison; the British made it the Central Jail. The vast area has been converted into Sanjay Place shopping centre.

As for the sarai built by Farid Khan, it came up on the site of an inn of Firozshah Tughlak’s time. Though the Maulana Azad Medical College has been built there now, Bhuri Bhatyari-ki-Masjid of the Tughlak period still exists in a corner. It is said to be related to the Bhuri Bhatiyari-ka-Mahal near Karol Bagh, which has now almost disappeared, except for a ruined gateway.

Daurani-Jithani-ka-kuan (Well of Sisters’-In-Law) that was also a landmarkis untraceable, unless exists filled up on the premises of J.P. Hospital. There were two other wells in the jail, one for condemned prisoners and the other for short-term prisoners , which supplied water for drinking and bathing, when there was no piped water supply.

Perhaps these wells too were filled up with masonry when the hospital was built (next to the erstwhile Irwin Hospital) in an area once covered by vegetable fields and Shahji-ka-Talab or lake, near which Ravana’s effigy was burnt before Dussehra celebrations were moved to the Yamuna bank.

This how Time brings about unimaginable changes. But the Khooni Darwaza of Sher Shah’s reign, overlooking Maulana Azad Medical College and Hospital mortuary, remains a silent witness to the past.

The writer is a veteran chronicler of Delhi