JUSTICE IN INDIA

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1914, Page 2

JUSTICE IN INDIA

PRISONERS HANGED AFTER ACQUITTAL.

EXTRAORDINARY REVELATIONS-

Following on correspondence between Mr Swift MacNeill, M.P., and Mr Montagu, Under Secretary for India, the former has sent to the Press what he describes as a "startling revelation" with reference to murder trials in India.

The Indian Government has the power to appeal against orders of acquittal made in murder trials in which r natives are accused, and Mr MacNeill has been furnished with an official return, giving the following "facts :i or ten years (1902-11): —

Number of cases in which the - Government appealed against acquittal on murder charges 284Number of appeals allowed ..- 157 Convicted of capital offence ... B°*; Sentenced to death ..-. 27 ■ One of the death sentences was - eventually commuted by a local+'.Governor to transportation ;for;life:^j Mr MacNeill says;/he ,askedi fo? (thereturn in the Souse., of Commons in July; Mr Montagu received the return from Simla on October 18. andforwarded it-to Mr MacNeill on November 26. Commenting on these dates, Mr-MacNeill says in a-letter toMr Montagu :-r--•--'^v, ..i-x^M/Zi^' "The delay in> forVardirfg-to me this report, having regard to its startling revelations; 1 understand^ and appreciate. You were probably moved by feelings similar to m\r own, for, with a knowledge; not ofT the very special character you-pos-sess of the intensity of Indian unrest, of which anyone moderately conversant wijfch public affaii-s ■»:" seized, I have, for some time* hesi' tatedffs to tb-e publication pf thisshockmg document: which I now give to the: Press; IV '' :-■■-■v ■ ■■If7V?L---w^i?l*^? f^eeds to remark what. the. retrial ot anyone after:an^ac- * quittal on a criminal charge, not to say: a capital charge, is .absolutely, un- ' thmkable.. The notion.-is ' abholf en? to^he genius, xlence ;.s 0 .much, *>, :;that-iir %uUnd' l at-least, a^er two.triajs,on a criminal ! charge which result in disagreement: fi^f rH'• the P^secution is/according Co the usual,practice, dropped by

On the^whole, the reflection i S ; not pleasamt that with respect to these .twenty-six. individualsV who, having been, acquitted of murderv were re-tned because they were natives, executed, executions, had they taken pface ia would have'%een wiltul murders' instead of fche^carrvmg out of thelaw—wilful murders,' ior, wnicn .everyone concerned iff thenr. judicially or miriistermlly,. would haye been guilty of wilful murder, either as a principal in the nrst. degree, a principal in the second degree or an accessory before the tact. In such a condition? of things does not the self-approval of some of the gentlemen /to whom the Government and administration of" India are entrusted^ savour, albeitunconsciously v of hypocrisy?'^