CONSPIRACY ALLEGED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 275, 19 November 1937, Page 6

CONSPIRACY ALLEGED

HINDU PETITIONS HOUSE INQUIRY RECOMMENDED A WANGANUI CASE [ Ter Press Association. J WELLINGTON, Nov. 18. The Rev. A. H. Nordmeyer (GovtOamaru), on behalf of the M to 1 Committee, reported in the House to« day on the petition of Bachint Singh, of Fordell, praying for compensation and other relief for an alleged miscarriage of justice, that the petition should be referred to the Government for most favourable consideration, and with a view to a Commission of Inquiry being set up to investigate the case. The Rev. Nordmeyer explained that Singh had served a sentence of a year’s imprisonment for alleged rape, but after he had been released evidence had come to light that certain witnesses in the trial, after which he had been sentenced, had committed perjury. Mr Ormond Wilson (Govt., Rangitieki) thanked the Committee for its report and stated that the chief witness for the prosecution had boasted that he had been responsible for putting Singh in prison. There was a direct interest on the part of the woman and her husband concerned in the case, because, as subsequent proceedings had proved, they owed SingM z certain sums of money. Mr Wilson said that he thought the case certainly deserved further consideration. The Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) pointed out that one aspect, which must be considered in all cases of this nature, was why the evidence which came to light after the trial had not been presented at the trial itself. If the evidence could have been presented at the trial the the question arose whether there should be a re-hearing of the case. Mr J. Hargest (Opp., Awarua), who was a member of the Committee concerned, said that Singh claimed that he had been the victim of a conspiracy, and that one group of Hindus had set out to catch him, also that certain witnesses at his trial had committed perjury. Those men who ths petitioner stated had been responsible for the “frame up” against him had left the country for fear of the consequences. The Rev. Nordmeyer expressed re-

gret at the attitude adopted by the Attorney-General and said that the Committee had considered the question of whether the evidence produced later could have been given at the trial. It had not lightly come to » 1 decision that there should be an in-/ quiry. The Committee’s recommendation 1 was passed. .