The heroic freedom fighter, Jagadish Arya, who hurled a bomb at the Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan on the evening of December 4, 1947, is likely to be honoured by the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, on August 9, on the occasion of the 69th anniversary celebrations of the Quit India Movement. The Hyderabad Collector, Mr Natarajan Gulzar, has recommended that he be given a place of honour in the reception.

The collector also nominated Mr M. Ramachandra Reddy from the city as another freedom fighter to be felicitated. The list of freedom fighters and their escorts will be forwarded to the revenue department which would in turn be sent it to the Centre, if the state government approves of it. Jagadish Arya, and his comrades, Narayana Rao Pawar and Gandaiah, threw a powerful bomb at the Nizam as he entered All Saint’s High School Crossroads on the King Koti Road. But the Nizam escaped the attack by a whisker. The 90-year-old freedom fighter and his wife Neela Devi, who has been nominated as the escort, stay at Sultan Bazaar in Hyderabad.