In the middle of the bridge, the police Superintendent of Kathua and the Kashmiri Militia were standing, blocking their troupe. They immediately handed over the written order of the Chief Secretary, prohibiting  Dr. Mukherjee to enter Kashmir.

The blatant and peremptory autocratic conduct of Shaikh Abdullah gave a rude shock to Dr. Mukherjee. In his heart, he had not expected this as it amounted to complete denial for the imposition of Bharatiya sovereignty!!!

He could smell some conspiracy being planned against him and he became more determined to fight the injustice and denied following the given instruction.

Sooner than later, another jolt in the form of another order arrived. Still, on the bridge, a Motorcycle came rushing by, with the written order, issued on 10th May 1953 by the Police Director General of the state. This order contained an instruction to arrest Dr. Mukharjee!!!

It narrated -” Dr. Mukharjee has done, is in the process of doing and will do in future, such activities, that would cause disruption in public peace and security. Hence, Captain A. Aziz, police Superintendent of Kathua, has been instructed to arrest him and imprison him in the Srinagar prison.”

Thus, Dr. Mukharjee did enter Kashmir, that too without permit but as a prisoner!!! He called out his then personal secretary, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and told him- “Atal, Jao aur poore desh ko batao ke akhirkaar Maine permit Bina Kashmir main pravesh kar liya hai. Haa, ek bandi ke roop main.

Meri anupsthiti mein baaki ke log kaam jaari rakhe.”

Such a profound message…

It may have appeared a simple gist of words but it had thousands of predictions about the future.

Post Dr. Mukharjee’s arrest, Pandit Maulichandra Sharma met Pandit Nehru and told him about Dr. Mukherjee ‘s physical conditions. He conveyed to him that he was heavy bodied with ample of heart related issues. He appealed to him to not keep him in the hilly regions of Kashmir but Nehru replied that Dr. Mukherjee would be ‘staying’ in Srinagar. It’s a ‘plain’ region and not on a hill with a cheerful cold climate. He would remain elated.!!!

A bungalow, near Nishant Baug in Srinagar, was converted into a mini jail and Dr. Mukherjee was imprisoned there.

On the twenty fourth May, Pandit Nehru too reached Srinagar for spending vacation but did not opt to meet Dr. Mukherjee, in prison. Even those who wished to meet him in prison, were not granted permission. 

Few of his relatives decided to travel all the way to Kashmir to meet him and the news delighted him, but later on he got no information about their travel or whereabouts.

Infact, post his death, the  truth was revealed that they had travelled and reached Srinagar in order to meet him in prison and had submitted a request letter for permission to meet him but never received any reply on the request!!!

Dr. Mukharjee ‘s son, who travelled from Patna to meet his imprisoned father and on reaching Delhi, applied for a permit. Appealing time and again for a permit, he was eventually denied a permit after a week. The authorised person for issuing permit had the audacity to reply to him- “If You are planning to tour Kashmir for excursion, I could grant You the permit immediately, within two minutes but since You want to travel to meet Your father, I can not allow You, a permit.!!!”

Dr. Mukharjee’s son had no choice but to return to Patna,  disheartened and could not even fulfil his wish of meeting the beloved father, one last time.

His close friend Hukam Sinh ji had applied for a permit to meet Dr. Mukharjee but he too, was refused. Finally, he took the responsibility of becoming the communicator of the National Conference Government and conveying certain of their wishes to Dr. Mukharjee and then he was granted the permit. Adv. Umashankar Trivedi, (advocate of Hon. Supreme Court) a close associate of Dr. Mukharjee, applied for a permission to meet him in the prison. He had come to Srinagar to file a Habeus Corpus petition against the detention of Dr. Mukharjee. He was also not granted permission to meet him until the Jammu-Kashmir High Court instructed to allow the meeting.

On the 19th June, Pandit Premnath Dogra was also brought to the same venue, where Dr. Mukherjee was in confinement but the space was too less and hence, a separate tent had to be put up in the premises.

On the night of the Nineteenth of June, Dr. Mukharjee complained of severe back and chest pain. Dr. Ali Mohammad visited the jail and diagnosed the disease as the dry lateral colic and gave an injection of Streptomycin. 

Infact, Dr. Mukharjee very specifically conveyed to him that his personal physician had forbidden him from taking Streptomycin!!! 

But, Dr. Ali Mohammad told him not to worry and gave a few painkillers.

By Twenty Second of June, his condition had worsened.  By 3 am in the night, the pain turned unbearable and Dr. Mukharjee had to wake up Vaidya Gurudutt as he had suffered from a severe heart attack. Dr. Ali Mohammad reached around 7-8 am and advised of shifting him to a Nursing home but the Jail superintendent did not have the authority to do so, thus waited for the permission of the district magistrate. Even in the case of such an emergency, the precious time was wasted and every minute, Dr Mukhy’s condition was getting more serious. By 10 am Adv. Umashankar Trivedi reached the jail premises. He had filed a Habeas Corpus challenging Dr. Mukharjee ‘s arrest as illegal, in the Jammu-Kashmir high court and the hearing on it was to happen on the day.

By 11.30 am, the jail superintendent shifted Dr. Mukharjee to the nursing home by Taxi. Adv. Umashankar Trivedi again visited him in the evening. The Chief Justice Jia Laal Kalaam of the J & K High Court had heard the case on  Dr. Mukharjee ‘s arrest and had prolonged the verdict for the next day.

But destiny had decided to take a further test. Dr. Mukharjee probably was not going to need the verdict. In the wee hours of Twenty Third June, the police superintendent reached out to Adv. Umashankar Ji and informed him that Dr. Mukharjee was sinking and took him along to the hospital. Pandit Premnath Dogra, Vaidya Gurudutt and Tekchand were also brought to the hospital. On their arrival, they were given the news that Dr. Mukharjee had passed away at 3.40 am!!!

He was only Fifty two years old at the time of death and in two weeks his fifty third birthday was going to come.

In 1946, Shaikh Abdullah was arrested and kept in Maharaja Hari Singh’s prison. Pandit Nehru was his close friend and to help his friend, he had arrived in Srinagar to arrange for the lawyer. 

Maharaja Hari Singh’s police had stopped him on the Kohla bridge and kept him in the state guest house in Kohla,  disallowing him to do any activity. After three days, Pandit Nehru returned back.

After Six years, Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukharjee was imprisoned by the same Shaikh Abdullah but Dr. Mukharjee was not given the similar cordial conduct by Shaikh. Moreover, when Pandit Nehru was imprisoned and forbidden from entering, Jammu – Kashmir was a princely state whereas when Dr. Mukharjee was denied entry without permit, the state of Jammu-Kashmir had already officially become the part of Bharatiya republic, signing the instrument of accession.

Dr. Mukharjee spent Forty three days in Shaikh’s prison and finally passed away.

After years, Sadar-e-Riyasat Dr  Karn Sinh, opened the pages of history and finally spoke about the most unfortunate incident.

He had said, “Neither the state government has posted me with his serious illness nor about him being admitted in the hospital. To the extent that I got the news of Dr. Mukharjee’s sad demise from unofficial sources and that too, extremely late, when his dead body was already been sent out of Srinagar towards Kolkata by air!!!”

When Dr. Mukharjee was breathing his last, Pandit Nehru was participating in the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth – 2, in London.