GIRLS PERSECUTED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 161, 24 June 1935, Page 7

GIRLS PERSECUTED

EXTRAORDINARY STORY Charge Against Maharajah PARENTS IMPRISONED illy Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received 24, 9.25 a.m.) BOMBAY, Juno 33. A beautiful 16-year-old girl named Dharmey, stepping bare-footed into tho witness-box of the High Court, related an extraordinary story when her brother applied to be established as her guardian. Dharmey gave evidence that her parents resided at Sirohi, where they suffered persecution and imprisonment. She went to tho Maharaja of Sirohi’s bungalow, kneeled before tho Maharaja and pleaded for mercy. The Maharaja promised to release her parents. Dharmey later found herself prisoner. She was takqn to another bungalow, where she was forced to become the Maharaja's mistress. Three other girls there were in tho same plight. Two months later Dharmey and two girls were taken to a bungalow in the Malabar Hills, Bombay. The Maharaja followed, cohabited with them and r.'ade attempts to convert them to Mohammedanism. When they refused they were beaten.. Subsequently Dharmey and the others climbed the bungalow wall at midnight and escaped. They took refuge in a children’s rescue home. Tho Court was informed that Dharmey’s parents were brought to Bombay under alleged promises and threats in order to claim their daughter and relievo the difficult situation in which the Maharaja found himself, but Dharmey and her brother refused to discontinue the proceedings. The Judge appointed the brother Dharmey’s guardian, and ordered that she be kept in Bombay.