FAMOUS INDIAN TRIAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18026, 1 March 1933, Page 2

FAMOUS INDIAN TRIAL

ENGLISHMEN SENTENCED PLOT TO OVERTHROW BRITISH RULE MEERUT, Jan. 15. The Meerut, conspiracy case ended to-day in the conviction of three Englishmen and 24 Indians of conspiring to deprive the King of his sovereignty and of “making war against him.” The Englishmen are: Philip Spratt—transportation for 12 years; B. F. Bradley—transportation for 10 years; H. L. Hutchinson—four years’ rigorous imprisonment. The sessions judge, in giving Iris judgment, said that the evidence showed that from 1925 the Russian Comintern had been endeavoring to bring about, a revolutionary situation in India by instigating the Communists there to active conspiracy by operating through the Communilst party in Britain and Holland and other Continental countries. It was through the Communist party in Britain that Spratt and Bradley Were deputed to work in India, It was alleged at the trial that, Spratt and Bradley were sent to India with financial aid from Moscow to organise the overthrow of- Briish rule. Huchinson was the editor in India of a Socialist, journal. Muzaffav Ahmed, one of the prisoners, was sentenced to transportation for life and- the others to various terms, Shaukat Usrnani, who was sentenced to transportation for 10 years, was nominated Communist candidate for Spoil Valley against Sir John Simon in the 1929 election. The trial began in 1928, and 31 persons were charged originally. One died in the course of the trial, and three Indians were acquitted. The case is regarded as the longest ever heard in India, the judgment alone taking five months to write, and covering 676 closely printed foolscap pages. The documents put in as exhibits numbered 2600. The prosecution has cost the Government about £120,000.