Jugal Chandra Ghosh (who died in 2002 at the age of 91) was a muscle man or gang leader who was involved in anti-Muslim violence in the run-up to Partition. When Gandhi came to Calcutta in August 1947 and stayed in a house in Beliaghata, Ghosh became a devotee and handed-in weapons in his presence. In later life he described himself as a Gandhian. When Nazes Afroz and I interviewed Ghosh on 24 April 1947, we spoke first at his home in Beliaghata and then outside the nearby house at which Gandhi stayed on his 1947 visit which he looked after pending its designation as a museum.
'I did see people surrendering arms in front of Gandhi-ji. In fact, many of my boys surrendered their arms. Some of my boys got angry with me. They even tried to kill me because I had become a Gandhian and I was preaching non-violence and trying to stop the riots in this area.'