MURDERED BY GERMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 September 1934, Page 9

MURDERED BY GERMS

LANDOWNER’S FATE. CALCUTTA, July 23. ■ Four of Calcutta’s leading doctors were charged to-day with conspiracy to murder one of the richest landowners in Bengal by means of deadlj bacilli. It is alleged that the motive, was to obtain possession of the man’s property, which produced £2,250 a year, and was likely to be doubled in value by a prospective inheritance. The defendants are: Dr. Benoyendra Pande, Dr. Taranath Bhattacharya, Dr. Durga Ratan Dhar, and Dr. Shivapada Bhattacharya. The landowner, who died some months ago, was Mr. Amarenda- Pande, step-brother of Dr. Pande. At the previous hearing in the magistrate’s court it was alleged that Mr. Pande was given a pair of spectacles which had been smeared with plague bacilli. The defendants are accused of having afterwards conspired to use bacilli by means of surreptitious injections in Mr. Pande’s arm when he was in crowded railway stations. All ho felt was a slight prick, to which he attached no particular importance at the time. After many such incidents, however, his health rapidly failed, and he died. Dr. Shivapada Bhattacharya, who is -an M.D. of Calcutta University, was officiating professor at the School of Tropical Medicine at the time of his arrest. Dr. Dhar, who is an M.R.C.P. ! of London, occupies a prominent position in the firm of Bengal Immunity Ltd., manufacturers of toxins and bacilli. It is alleged that he supplied the baccilli 'for the murder. Dr Taranath, it is asserted, signed a death certificate to conceal the alleged crime. The body was then cremated.