Durga Das Khanna was born in an orthodox Hindu family. He belonged to a family which had no political background. He was born in In 1931, Durga Das Khanna was sentenced to death by the Lahore Sessions Judge for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate the Governor of Punjab. He was acquitted later by the High Court. Scion of an orthodox family, Khanna became very close to Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev. In an interview recorded by the Nehru Memorial Library, eight years before his death in 1984, he describes how he was induced to give up his conservative moorings and drawn into the revolutionary band that sought to end the British rule in India by force. (Credit- The Tribune)

Durga Das Khanna revealed that Bhagat Singh and Veer Savarkar had a deep connection. He stated that Bhagat Singh drew a lot of inspiration from Veer Savarkar. In fact the criteria to recruit freedom fighters into the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association)by Bhagat Singh was whether the new recruit read the book written by Veer Savarkar on the First War of Independence, this was revealed by a Congressman Durga Das Khanna who was also a former member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).

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