INFORMER SHOT IN INDIAN GAOL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 249, 17 October 1908, Page 15

INFORMER SHOT IN INDIAN GAOL.

A CRIME OF VENGEANCE. Great excitement was caused in Calcutta on Monday, August 31 by the news that Goswami, the member of the Anarchist gang who turned King's evidence and disclosed the whole plot, had been shot dead by two other members of the gang in Allpur Gaol. The two men who committed the crime shammed sickness in order to be sent to the gaol hospital, in which Goswami was detained. Goswami was mustered with others for the surgeon's inspection, when the two men, drawing revolvers, shot him through the head and heart, killing him instantly. Two European prisoners named Linton and Iliggins attempted to disarm the murderers and were themselves wounded by further shots, one of them very seriously. The warders then seized the men, who were only overcome after a desperate struggle. It is presumed that the revolvers used were conveyed to the prisoners by friends in the course of the frequent interviews with relatives and lawyers which were permitted in spite of the energetic protests ot the gaol authorities. It is stated that a search disclosed no fewer than seven of these weapons in the possession of the Anarchist prisoners, and an inquiry is proceeding as to how they were obtained. It was at the beginning of May that all India was startled by the news that a number of houses in Calcutta and a large residence In the northern suburb of Manicktollah had been raided by the police, who had discovered evidence of a carefully-planned Anarchist plot, in which the use of explosives was to figure largely. At 144, Harrison-road, Calcutta, and at the Manicktollah house, huge seizures were made of arms, bombs, and explosives, and material for their manufacture, together with a quantity of highly compromising correspondence. Eleven men were arrested in the city itself, and nineteen at Manicktollah, while the captured letters afforded clues which enabled the police to lay their hands on several other conspirators. GOSWAMI'S CONFESSIONS. In all, the authorities secured thirty-five prisoners. Some of them were brought up at the Alipur District Court, and others at the Presidency Magistrate's Court in Lall Bazar. The most prominent of them is a well known Hindu named Arabindo Ghose, who was educated in England, and is a graduate of Cambridge University. Goswami, who is a member of a well known Bengali family, tnraed approver on June 23, and told how the Anarchist Society had organised the plot against Mr Kingsford, which had resulted In the murder of two English women at Mozufferpore. By his own confession he had been privy to this, and nad himself assisted in two attempts to blow up the train in which Sir Andrew Fraser, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, was travelling. He stated that the conspirators had planned to get money by looting wealthy houses and laying hands on the supplies of silver that are sent np country from Calcutta by Government and business firms. He had been about from place to place on the business of the society disguised as a sansyasin, or religious mendicant. Wlien his fellow-prisoners were committed to the sessions the magistrate, believing that Goswami had made a full confession, ordered his release. That was twelve days before his murder. It is believed that Goswami was kept in the gaol hospital by his own request, as he was afraid of being attacked. 'Amongst other statements made by Goswami was one implicating Raja Mohun Mookerjee, who, he said, gave the speiety 200 rupees (£l3 6/S) after the attempt on the Mayor ot Chandernagore. He also mentioned the names of other notables who had subscribed to the assassination funds.