AN INDIAN MYSTERY.
THREE BABIES DISAPPEAR. Just ordinary' kidnapping or some recondite form sorcery—that is the problem which the Scotland Yard of the State of Hyderabad is cajled upon to solve in accounting for th® fate of three children, born of the same mother in threje alternate years, who vanished a few days after their birth
The strange, disappearance of the first child naturally created a stir; spiriting away at the second, despite safeguarding caused alarm ; but when thq third child vanished, although every possible human agency for kidnapping had been excluded, it can easily be understood that the popular mind should) turn to the world of malignant spirits as an explanation The story is .told by the Secunderabad corresporjdent of the “Pioneefr” (Allahabad) whq states that while the police register the cases as ordinary kidnapping popular belief finds an explanation of the mystery in “Bhanamati,” which is a form of black magic extensively practised in the State of Hyderabad. As gleaned by the correspondent the facts, of the case are as follows :— Mr Syed Jaffar Russian, who is employed as a clerk in| ;a,n office at Bhofigir, in the Nalgoud* District, and his wife, Rukai Bi, are said) to be a happy couple, very mucih attached to each other, and. leading a normal and pleasant life. In th® year 1923 Fasli, their first child, a son, was bcjrn, but a fortnight after his arrival he disappeared, and all search for him proved fruitless.
In 1925, Fasli, their second child, also, a son, was borja, awl in spite of all possible precautions to safeguard him, he, too; disappeared) like the first child a fortnight after birth. On both occasions thiq husband and wife and their child were asleep in a room of their house, and) with the exception of a single door, which had been barred and! locked from the inside, the room had' w> window or other opening.
The disappearance took place at about midnight when, according to the statement .made by Rukia Bi herself, she fell infii a kind of semiconscious state diuring which she sa ; w two strangely-clad persons armed with naked swords approach her. After threatening her these strange beings anjatched away her child and) vanished. The dQor of the room Showed no signs of having been tampered with. In 1926 Rukia Bi was found to be with a child for the third time, aud her husband, firmly determined to safeguard the child on its Arrival against the fate of the two previous children, adopted special precautionary He removed with his wife to a relative’s house, and, to make assurance doubly sure, applied; tot the police requesting them to make; arrangements to safeguard the place. Accordingly, two police-con-stables were told off for this duty. Rukia Bl was again delivered of a healthy male child on November 4’, under normal circumstances, and no pains were spared in caring for the child. Notwithstanding this, the infant also strangely disappeared) on midnight of November 19. As on the previous occasion all entrances to the room were closely bolted, and haired from the inside, the oply of it being the husbawi, his ■wife, and their child. Moreover, the constables wepe guarding the house outside diuring the incident and reported that they had seen nobody either entering or leaving the hous&
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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5355, 23 November 1928, Page 1
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550AN INDIAN MYSTERY. Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5355, 23 November 1928, Page 1
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