July 27: With a revolver sent by the firebrand revolutionary Vinayak Damodar Savarkar from London, he shot the British official dead at a theatre in Nasik when a play was being staged on December 21, 1909.The scene was reminiscent of the assassination of American President Abraham Lincoln who was watching a play when he was shot by John Booth. But here was no Lincoln, but the collector of Nasik district in British India, Jackson and the assassin was Anant Kanare.According to Thane-based Institute for Oriental Study, Kanare bought a ticket to the Marathi musical play being staged in Nashik.Savarkar was arrested in London. While being brought to India, he jumped out of the vessel near Marseilles port in France but freedom was shortlived as he was apprehended and handed over to the British.Savarkar was taken back to London and thereafter brought to Mumbai to stand trial. He spent time briefly at the Thane jail before being sentenced to life imprisonment at `kala paani', as Andamans was then fearfully described.Referring to the saga of these freedom fighters, the president of the Institute for Oriental Study, Dr Vijay V Bedekar has hoped that in the golden jubilee year of Indian independence, Thane jail would be declared as a national monument. In the post-independence era, the famed anda (egg shaped) cell at the jail, which once confined revolutionaries, has housed accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case and recently the gangster turned politician Arun Gawli, he pointed out.
