The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-21
METHODS OF INDIAN CRIMINALS.
Robbery by the Use of Drugs Reduced to
to n Fine Art.

| From theTimes of India.
| Judging from a passage in an inter-
esting report on the police administra-
ton Of the central provinces, which has
| just been issued, ii would appear that
while introducing Western methods Of
| government into Asia we have also
| brought into the East some OF the
! choicest growths of western crime. 1T
| is recorded that at Khandwa a guile
| less coolic employed on the water
works was accosted by a friendly falxir,
! who expressed desire to see what gov
eminent rupees were like. The unsus-
pecting innocent handed over couple
of specimens to the falxir, who dexter
ously substituted two false coins for
them when handing them back. Surely
this is an oriental version of the old ia
miliar confidence trick" which is
played in various forms in the prulieus
of London every day! But in this in
stance the coolie was able to turn the
tables on his deceiver He did not dis
cover the fraud for some time after, and
when he found he had been duped he
lay low and said nifiin.' One day he
again met the fakir who this time asked
for change for a rupee. He promptly
seized the holy man and gave him into
custody, and false rupee being found
in the fakir's possession he was de-
49, ~ ~ Aiio iipNiAS Api thN fpotI ~
two years.
But the pages of the criminal records
of the central provinces also contain eX
amples of numerous crimes which are
peculiar to the East. For instance at
Jubbulpore recently man felt highly
indignant at the severe treatment he
had received at the hands OF his land
lord. Accordingly he seized his own
child by the legs and dashed it on the
ground, killing IL instantly. In the be-
lief, il is supposed. that its blood would
be on the head of his prosecutor Such
appalling attempts to secure revenge
by VicariouS sacrifice are, happily, UNI
known to the Western world nowadays
Dacoities, of course form prominent
feature In the report, and in at least
two instances clever captures of danger
Gus gangs were effected by the police.
Robberies after administering drugs.
though by no means unknown In
Europe are practiced in a far more sys-
matte manner in India. one particular
iy daring offender was brought to JUS
tfce in the central provinces last year.
He wandered about the district pois-
oning people right and left" and aft
erward relieving them of their belong
ings. His usual method was to strike
up an acquaintance with a traveller, and
surreptitiously to introduce drugs into
the food. His most parefaced exploit
was carried out right in the center of
the market place at Hinganghat, where
he drugged three men with dhatura and
got clear away With their valuables,
The Hinganghat outrage, however,
was his last for his career as a poisoner
came to an end directly afterward i'm a
remarkable manner. In his disguise of
respectable traveller he had driven
around the Wardha district in a cart
drawn by a pair of bullocks, After the
robbery in the market place he appears
In have concluded that he had
INFLATED enough spoils to warrant him
in retiring into private life and he dis
appeared, leaving his cart behind him.
A constable drove the conveyance round
the district seeking the owner While
on his wanderings ne came to a place
called khapri, and as he was passing
through ii a woman rushed out of "A
house and declared that the bullocks be-
longed to her husband. The constable
discreetly retorted that they now be-
longed to his uncle, and quietly went to
an adjacent railway station and tele-
graphed TO his inspector, who came by
the next train. BY a singular coinci-
dence the poisoner Joined the same train
at wayside station and on alighting
at the point nearest his native village he
was recognized by the inspector owing
to a curious bracelet he Wore. He had
the proceeds of the robberies In his pos
session and his Wife's innocent excla-
nation will cost him IA years imprison-
ment.
IL was only to be expected that, as a
result of the widespread distress in the
central provinces, there should have
been a great increase in grain robberies.
The reports show that the many cases
of grain looting which occurred were
not the work of dangerous criminals.
but of starving people. driven to break
the law by their desperate condition.
One proof of this is that, as rule. very
little personal violence was offered by
the hooters. In view of the exceptional
nature of the situation the great bulk
of the offenders We're, by the order OF
the chief commissioner, summarily dealt
with upon charges of unlawful assem-
bly, or common theft, only ringleaders
being placed upon their trial on graver
charges.