Dagshai Jail and Heritage Museum Timings: 9:00 – 6:00 (Monday closed)

– Dagshai jail is the second most popular jail after the Andaman Islands cellular jail.

– Dagshai jail is a unique T-shaped jail with a high ceiling and teak wood flooring.

– Constructed in the year 1849 at a cost of Rs. 72,873 having 54 cells measuring 8 x 12 feet and a height of 20 feet. The ventilation is 1×2 feet. The iron gates of cells are specially casted iron alloy impossible for any prisoner to cut these gates.

– 27 cells are known as common cells and 16 as solitary confinement cells. 11 are for jail staff.

– 16 solitary confinement cells for severe indiscipline cases. These cells have no ventilation and no access to natural light.

– Few cells are for inhuman punishments. A prisoner was made to stand between two doors of a cell. Both the doors were locked, thus prisoner was kept standing for hours depriving him of any rest.

– Dagshai jail was even used to lodge German and Italian prisoners of war in 1944.

– Mahatma Gandhi visits Dagshai jail to meet imprisoned great Irish Leader – Eamon De Valera.

– Unconfirmed reports that Nathuram Godse too spent some time in Dagshai jail.

– It is believed, four Indian revolutionaries were executed in Dagshai who were on board the S.S. Komagatamaru – a Japanese Ship chartered in May 1914 by Baba Gurdit Singh a wealthy Sikh from Singapore to take 350 Indian Sikhs to Canada.

– There is an antique Scottish water pump inside the jail premises.

(Source: Display Board)