Several trade unionists, including three Englishmen, were arrested for organizing an Indian railway strike.

The trial immediately caught attention in England, where it inspired the 1932 play Meerut by a Manchester street theatre group, the Red Megaphones, highlighting the detrimental effects of colonisation and industrialisation.

Dange, along with 32 other persons, was arrested on or about 20 March 1929 [2] and put on trial under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code: Whoever within or without British India conspires to commit any of the offences punishable by Section 121 or to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India or any part thereof, or conspires to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Government of India or any local Government, shall be punished with transportation for life,[3] or any shorter term, or with imprisonment of either description which may extend to ten years.The main charges were that in 1921, S. A. Dange, Shaukat Usmani, and Muzaffar Ahmad joined a conspiracy to establish a branch of the Communist International in India and were helped by various persons, including the accused Philip Spratt and Benjamin Francis Bradley, who were sent to India later by the Communist International.

The aim of the accused persons, according to the charges raised against them, was under section 121-A of the Indian Penal Code (Act 45 of 1860): ... to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India, and for such purpose to use the methods and carry out the programme and plan of campaign outlined and ordained by the Communist International.The Sessions Court in Meerut awarded stringent sentences to the accused in January 1933.

[2] The convictions of Desai, Hutchinson, Mitra, Jhabwala, Sehgal, Kasle, Gauri Shankar, Kadara, and Alve were also overturned on appeal.