Delhi / Execution room found at Delhi Assembly, Speaker says British used it for revolutionaries

New Delhi: After a British-era tunnel was found on the premises of the Delhi Assembly, a gallows room has also been found.

The building, which was constructed in 1912 after the shifting of capital from Kolkata to Delhi, housed the Central Legislative Assembly between 1913 and 1926.

Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel claims the building fell into disuse after 1926 and the British administrators turned the building into a court and decided to hold trials of "revolutionaries" here.

"Revolutionaries were brought here from the Red Fort via a tunnel," Goel said.

According to him, prisoners were tried within the hall and convicts were sent to the gallows.

Divulging the series of incidents that led to the discovery of the gallows, the Assembly Speaker said that a worker had given information about a wall that seemed to be comparatively new. "When we knocked on the wall, it seemed hollow and we decided to break it," he said.

Goel said that a team of the Archaeological department will be called to date the bricks, wood, and other things.

He said the Delhi Vidhan Sabha will be open to tourists. Earlier, he has assured that the tunnel would be renovated and opened for tourists.

"In months when sessions are not held here, it will be open for tourists," Goel said.

The building, though around 109 years old, does not come under the Archaeological Survey of India.