Question 98

X (24 January 1914 – 9 December 1983) was an Indian soldier who is remembered as an officer who served in the Second Indian National Army duringWorld War II and later came to be one of the three defendants in the first of the INA trials in 1946.

Born in the village of Matore, Kahuta, Rawalpindi District, British India, (now Pakistan) X initially volunteered to join the British Indian Army in 1940, in the opening stages of the war in Asia. He saw action in the Battle of Singapore before being taken prisoner after the surrender of the city. Although initially reluctant to join the INA under Mohan Singh, X joined the second INA after the arrival of Subhash Chandra Bose in South-East Asia. He later led the INA forces that participated in the Japanese offensive at Imphal and Kohima, and subsequently rose to be the commander of the second division. X also saw action against allied forces in the latter's second Burma Campaign, and surrendered to British troops in Burma. In November 1946, X, along with G.B.S. Dhillon and P.K. Sehgal faced trial and was convicted for charges of treason at the Red Fort in Delhi, but intense public support and overwhelming nationalist sympathies forced General Auchinleck to discharge X and his co-defendants with forfeiture of pay.

In Independent India, X joined the Indian National Congress and came to be a minister for state in Nehru's First Cabinet. Hailing from the Janjua Rajput clan of Matore. His adopted daughter Lateef Fatima was Shah Rukh Khan's mother.
Identify this extraordinary man..

Answer : Shahnawaz Khan... Cracked by arpit, Anirban, Nevil, Samarthya, Indian, Rishwin and VK...

Question contributed by Gopi Krishna