A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers.

  • Norman Chevers
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    which had been committed under circumstances of great atrocity by the servaut of a rich zemindar. Here the money and influence of his power- ful neighbour were, doubtless, operative.* The following appears in the Report of the Police of the Lower Pro- vinces for 1866 : The mother of the deceased informed the police that her son had committed suicide by hanging himself. The police found that he had been murdered by Sreekaut and others. Deceased is said to have had an intrigue with Sreekant's wife. Sreekant and three others came at night and killed him, and instructed his mother to lodge informa- tion that her son had committed suicide. The four defendants were arrested, committed, and sentenced to transportation for life. Doubtless, the poor mother yielded in sheer terror. The whole of this miserable system is summed up in a few words record- ed by the Nizamut Adawlut in 1856. Instances of persons consenting to forego the prosecution of those who have committed the most serious injuries on their persons or properties are within the common experience of every magistrate in this country.f It has already been mentioned that murdered bodies are not unfrequently removed to a considerable distance from the scene of the crime, often to the environs of a neighbouring village. In 18 42, it appeared in a trial at Ahmedabad (Bombay), that two coolies were accompanying a wedding party at about 4 o'clock one morning, when they met three G-osaens leaving a village with a rnare and a colt. On the back of the mare they saw a man lying wrapped up in a quilt. The posture of this man attracted their attention and induced them to enquire why he was lying in such a position. The G-osaens replied that the man was suffering from fever, and was unable to sit up. The Gosaens then proceeded on their way. On talking over the matter, the coolies were of opinion that the man was dead ; they, therefore, turned back in pursuit. After proceeding about half a mile, they overtook the Gosaens, but no longer saw the body of the man lying on the back of the mare. The coolies apprehended two of them, and described a spot where the body, murdered by stabbing, was found buried in a water-course. The prisoners were condemued to death.:]; In 1856, three men in the Midnapore district were so remorselessly beaten and otherwise ill-used that they died. Each of the bodies was tied to a bamboo and carried to a maidau (plain) about two-and-a-half miles from the village where the crime was committed.§ In a case of dacoity with murder in the Hooghly Zillah in 1855, it was shown that it was not until three days after the crime Avas committed * Mr. Dunbar's Police Reports, L. P., 1849, p. 8. The law no longer binds zemindars to give notice of suspicious deaths. t Nizamut Adawlut Reports, Vol. VI., for 1856, p. 801. $ Bellasis's Bombay Reports, p. 147. § Nizamut Adawlut Reports, Vol. VI. (1856), p. 481.