TRAIN MURDER SEQUEL

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRAIN MURDER SEQUEL

SMART DETECTIVE WORK. SCOTSMAN'S FATE. Smart detective work resulted in a prompt arrest following the murder of Mr. W. P. Elder, a native of Dundee, in a Calcutta-Bombay mail train. Mr. Elder, who was an overseer in a jute mill at Dalhousie belonging to a Dundee firm with offices in London, was on his way to Bombay to meet his wife, who was coming from Scotland. According to a Reuter message from Calcutta, the detained man is an AngloIndian. He was a passenger on the DelliiHowrah express, and was ' arrested at Asansol Station. On the same day a European travelling to Calcutta was /approached in his compartment by an Anglo-Indian, who said that his wife had met with an accident.

The stationmaster noticed a man descend on to the permanent way and walk towards the -nlatform. Questioned as to why he was leaving the train when he held a first-class ticket from Howrah to Bombay, he said that when the train Avas leaving Chakradharpore Station, an. hour before, he had been handed a telegram saying that his wife had met with an accident, and that, therefore, he wished to return to Calcutta. Next morning, when the stationmaster heard of Mr. Elder's death, he wired up and down the line describing the action of the man, who was stated to have been wearing khaki shorts and a white holland coat. The European helped him to buy a ticket. After reaching Howrah they shared a taxi, which, after leaving the European at his home, took the AngloIndian to a house in Park Street. From there he returned to Howrah Station and purchased a railway ticket. The house was traced through the taxidriver, but when the police went to Park Street the man had left for Dhaubad.