When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement in August, 1942, Yogendra Shukla scaled the wall of Hazaribagh Central Jail along with Jayaprakash Narayan, and others with a view to starting underground movement for freedom. As Jayaprakash Narayan was ill then, Shukla walked a distance to Gaya, which is 100 kilometres south of Patna with Jayaprakash Narayan on his shoulders.