One hundred years ago on this day - 12 January 1925 - a group of men attacked a couple on a car ride in a upmarket suburb in Bombay (now Mumbai) in co

A murder that shook British India and toppled a king

submited by

Style Pass

2025-01-12 03:30:03

One hundred years ago on this day - 12 January 1925 - a group of men attacked a couple on a car ride in a upmarket suburb in Bombay (now Mumbai) in colonial India, shooting the man dead and slashing the woman's face.

But the story that unfolded brought global spotlight on the case, while its complexity put the country's then British rulers in a spot of bother, and eventually forced an Indian king to abdicate.

Newspapers and magazines described the murder as "perhaps the most sensational crime committed in British India", and it became "the talk of the city" during the investigation and subsequent trial.

The victim, Abdul Kadir Bawla, 25, was an influential textile businessman and the city's youngest municipal official. His female companion, Mumtaz Begum, 22, was a courtesan on the run from the harem of a princely state and had been staying with Bawla for the last few months.

On the evening of the murder, Bawla and Mumtaz Begum were in the car with three others, driving in Malabar Hill, an affluent area along the shore of the Arabian Sea. Cars were a rarity in India at the time, and only the rich owned them.