Hans Raj (approver)

Hans Raj (born 1896) was an Indian youth, in Amritsar, British India, who in June 1919 became an approver for the British government when he gave evidence for the Crown at the Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial in which he identified his fellow Indian revolutionaries, buying his own freedom in return.

In early 1919, Hans Raj became active in the non-violent disobedience or Satyagraha movement and began to participate in protests against British rule in India. He was appointed the joint secretary of the Satyagraha organisation in Amritsar and worked to help local Indian leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal, whose arrests and deportation on 10 April 1919 triggered riots. He subsequently arranged a meeting at Jallianwalla Bagh on 13 April 1919, and was present during the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre. Having survived that day, he was soon arrested but became an approver for the British, providing evidence which led to the sentencing of Kitchlew and Satyapal to two years imprisonment.

Shortly after the trial, he was transferred by the British to Mesopotamia, Iraq. Historians have debated whether he was an agent for the police all along or simply took the opportunity to save his own skin by testifying for the British.