ATTEMPTED ESCAPE OF A GANG OF DACOITS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 10614, 14 May 1896, Page 2

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE OF A GANG OF DACOITS.

DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH: THE POLICE GUARDS.

The town of Chupra a few days ago (says the Times of India of 2nd April) was thrown into great excitement by the attempted escape of one of these gangs known as the Ahirgang. As theso men 30 in number, were being brought from the Magistrate's Court to an open space where they were being handcuffed before being marched back to gaol, their leader suddenly gave tho gang cry and at once all d 0 of the gang set upon their guards overpowering them for the time, seizing"lathis, swords, and any other weapons! they could lay hands on. The police, guards recovered themselves and rearrested six of the raon, the remaining 24 escaping in a compact body. The constables available, taking their carbines from the men o£ the Opium and Treasury Guards, followed in hot pursuit. Mr Knyvett thus describes, what subsequently happened :— "As L gained the circuit-houso wall the wholegang was coming towards me, led by a short active man dressed in gaol clothes and brandishing a sword. For a moment they turned and made towards me shouting and waving their sticks and aimsthen they dashed iv the direction of theriver, and I saw they were desperate and that we should have to fire on then*. Arming myself with my shot gun I followed them' on foot, and soon drew a crowd after me. Between the town and the river bank, a distance of two or three miles of heavy sand and mud, we Kept up a ruuniug fight, and every now and then one of the dacoits fell out, or, facing round, was knocked over aud secured, the pursuit after the main body being steadily maintained without check-, Iv this way 11 men were secured ; the remaining 13 comprisiug Mahang Roy, Bijadhar Ahir' and 11 others, gained the river; aud as they were wading it some shots | were fired at them, which took effect on two in the river. Jaadagi Ahir was wounded in the- head, and gave him1 self up ; Gunraj Ahir was (it is stated) : shot, and immediately sank and was ; drowned. His body has not as yet been i recovered. Meanwhile I ran down to the I ferry ghat and got out three boats, and 1 followed the remainder of the gang-. They were by this time on a sand bankin thn middle of the river, and fortunately so exhausted that they were gradually hsmmed in by numbers of men on both banks of the river ; while Mr Garrefct. the assistant magistrate, pluckiiy swam over with a number of men to a sand! bank above them, aud so cut off their retreat upstream. Finally, all of them gavethemselves up, and by 8 p.m , every mam of the 24 men who escaped was safely loc'.e.l up in gaol, with the exception of Gunraj Ahir, ' drowned.' The pluck and; perseverance manifested by Mr Knyvett Mr Garrett, and thoir subordinates caunot. be too strongly commended^