262
Further pap er put in by RAI BAHADUR
K. NARAINASWAMY.
55. I most respectfully beg to submit with re--
ference to the remarks made by the Collector, in
his letter No. 1407, dated 14th November 1893,
as regards my answers to question 55 of the Hemp
Commission that about the year 1879 a goldsmith
named Manapilli Sooryanarain and another person
who was a sweetmeat-seller gave sweetmeat mixed
with some preparation of ganja to a goldsmith boy
aged about 8 years and decked with ornaments
worth about R500, and when the boy became stupe-
- f i e d u n d e r t h e i n f l u e n c e o f t h e d r u g , h e w a s r o b b e d
of the jewels he had on his person and then
strangled to death. This happened at Ankapalli.
The case was convicted by the Sessions Court,
Vizagapatam, sentencing the goldsmith mur-
derer to be hanged by the neck and acquitting his
accomplice. This case was quoted to me by the
retired head constable, one named Della
R a m a s w a - m i , w h o c h a r g e d t h e c a s e , b e i n g t h e n t h e S . H . O .
of the Ankapilli Police Station. A retired Police
constable named Avala Polayya, who served for a
long time in the Vizianagram town station, quotes
another case as occurred in the town of
V i z i a n a - g r a m . T h e f o l l o w i n g a r e t h e p a r t i c u l a r s : —
About the year 1877 a person of weaver caste
gained intimacy with a dancing girl; one night
coveting her personal property, he resorted to the
plan of giving sweetmeat mixing with it madum
(confection of ganja) ; but before it produced com-
plete effect on her, he hurriedly gave a gap wound
to her throat with a razor, and she woke up raising
an alarm, and the man bolted away with a neck-
lace, removing it from her neck hurry-skurry.
The accused was sentenced for attempt at murder
to 10 years' transportation.
Oral evidence.
Question 1 .—I have been 17 years in the Police
Department and three years in other departments.
I have been the last ten years at Vizianagram.
My duties take me over the Vizagapatam district
and the Agency Tracts.
Question 3.—I have never heard of the hemp
plant growing wild in this part of India. It is
cultivated chiefly in the hills; the ganja supplied
to the contractors comes from the hilly parts (the
Agency tracts). The hill people cultivate for ex-
- p o r t t o t h e p l a i n s . I h a v e s e e n f i e l d s g r o w i n g ,
small open fields behind houses on the hills, open
yards behind the houses, patches of cultivation.
The cultivation is not found in all the villages of
the Agency ; in only one-fourth of the villages,
and that too not very extensively, only in three or
four yards, say, out of ten. In the plains I have
noticed a few plants growing behind houses; but
cultivation is much less on the plains. It is not
in fields, except that occasionally a few seeds are
sown along with tobacco. In the Vizianagram taluk
of over 270 villages cultivation is only in one or
two villages. My attention had been drawn to
cultivation two or three years ago. I had not
noticed it before except perhaps casually. Of
course I have not made any special inquiry before.
I have seen the hemp plant growing in twenty
villages out of about seventy villages seen by me
in the Agencies. I did not look for the hemp
plant in the other villages I visited. There are
about seventy that I have not seen in the Gul--
gunda Agency. I should think that Gulgunda
is about one-fourth of the total Agencies. What
I am giving is only a general impression left as
the result of visits.
Question 20.—By ten per cent. of the popula--
tion I mean ten per cent. of the adult males.
But I am inclined on reconsideration to say
that one in fifty, not one in ten, of the adult
males would be nearer the trutb. I have ascer-
tained the following figures. The population of
the town is 30,881; and there would be about 500
or 600 consumers. I took a census of the people
coming to the one ganja shop ; one day there
were over 200, the second day about 300, and
third day between 200 and 300. On Sunday
between 300 and 400.
Question 32.—There is no custom of using these
drugs at the Shivaratri in this district. It is
only confirmed smokers who call the drug the
"Shiva ki buti," but not other people, here at
least.
Question 45 .—I have been Inspector about
seventeen years. I have never in all that time
had to make any report regarding a subordinate
in connection with hemp drugs.
Question 51.—These men are generally opium
smokers. But if they cannot get opium they
will go to ganja smokers and get ganja. I have
found these men smoking and hence know that
they take the drugs. All fifteen take opium.
And all fifteen habitually take ganja. They do
not mix the two drugs. But they take both as
they can get them. Opium is limited to meal
times; and for ganja there is no such limitation
of time. There are now twenty-five men on my
l i s t ; o f t h e s e , a r e s m o k e r s a s a b o v e . W e g e n e r a l l y e n t e r t h e f a c t o f s m o k i n g o n t h e l i s t .
We have orders issued by the Inspector General
of Police to give particulars about ganja, opium
or alcohol habit in our history of criminals. This
has been in force for twelve months. We are
ordered to give the habits and customs of known
depredators in their prescribed criminal history.
The order was issued in 1892.
The twenty-five names have been on my register
for a long time. Some for ten or fifteen years.
They were known from the beginning as smokers.
But there was no record of this before 1892.
There was no criminal history page before then,
and I have not looked into the record of every
case as made before that.
Question 53 .—By mad, I mean only leaving
worldly concerns and leaving home and going
about. I only know of one man who has gone
out of his mind from ganja. He is inoffensive,
but has no sense. He was a police constable. H
e resigned before I entered the police, or was dis--
charged, I cannot say. He is au old man. He
has been about ten years mad. He begs. I
did not know him before he was mad. I was told
of him after I came to Vizianagram.