FURTHER ENQUIRIES REGARDING THE ALLEGED HEMP DRUG CASES OF 1892. 137
He would not talk to the members of the Ganja Commission.
The special magisterial enquiry states that no relatives can be found. He told me
that he had never taken any narcotic or stimulant (alcohol, ganja, or tobacco). He was
disinclined to answer any questions, or to pay much attention to what was said to him.
Alleged cause of insanity ganja, but no definite or trustworthy evidence on this
point.
N.B.—The Asylum clerk says that he recollects that when Rudraya was admitted to
the Asylum he admitted to having taken ganja, but there is nothing recorded of any
admission of this nature. He also says that the police who brought him said that Rudraya
had been some days on the river bank and that the malguzar and people of the vicinity,
considering him to be a sadhu, had brought him from time to time milk and ganja. This
may account for his violence at Chanda and when first admitted into the Asylum.
In my opinion all that we are justified in conjecturing from the history and present
mental state of Rudraya is that he is a weak-minded creature, given to wandering habits,
suffering from melancholia, with occasional periods of excitement and with a craving at
these times for stimulant narcotics as ganja, and further that the gratification of this
craving probably aggravates the mental excitement.
6. Kalekhan.—Supposed duration of disease, 9 months. The medical certificate
says:—"The patient is a ganja-smoker." He had been in the 1st Regiment of Infantry,
Hyderabad Contingent. Had been discharged for insanity, was found wandering at
Anjangaon, and when in the regiment had a habit of straying away towards the hills.
He is under the impression that he is a great man, and that others should pay him every
respect. Remains motionless for half an hour at a time, and then begins to laugh, &c.
&c. The Asylum history shows nothing special beyond that he was excited in July 1892,
again in August 1892, and again in January 1893. Depressed since May 1893.
Nothing coherent could be got out of him by the members of the Ganja Commission.
The special magisterial enquiry notes the evidence of one Mahomed Khan, who says
he is a distant relative of Kalekhan (though Kalekhan denies this); says he was steady
in early life, but after employment showed vicious tendencies. It was suspected that he
drank liquor privately, but not in public. He was attached to a prostitute and quarrelled
with her, whereupon she left him and he became insane. It is said that something was
given him to smoke with tobacco, and from this he became insane. None of his relatives
are insane.
I questioned him at some length as to his past history, habits, &c., but beyond the
fact that the above Mahomed Khan was no relation of his, he refused to reply to any
question. Is generally depressed and silent. Knee-jerks present.
In my mind this is another instance of a man of weak intellect with wandering ten-
dencies. I can find no positive evidence to support the ganja hypothesis. He was
suspected of secret drinking, and there is a history of disappointment in love. Weighing
these three possible causes of his insanity, I cannot find any grounds for assuming that
one cause was more active than either of the other two in causing the insanity.
7. Lachman, Gond.—This man was discharged from the Asylum previous to my assum-
ing charge of it, and his whereabouts are unknown. As I did not see him or examine
into his mental condition, I prefer not to offer any criticism on the supposed cause of his
insanity being ganja.
In conclusion, I find that in many of the cases there is a history of ganja-somking
combined with alcoholism, and in two cases a further complication of disappointment in
connection with some love intrigue. How much, if any, of the insanity was produced by the
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