TORTURE IN INDIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5265, 7 February 1878, Page 3

TORTURE IN INDIA.

The Times of India says ; —“ The following facte, elicited at the trial at the recent sessions •>i North Arcot of a case in which live natives were charged with haring murdered five of their caste people, show that torture is not yet extinct la that part of the world. It appeared that the prisoners' fields wore robbed of a email quantity o£ cumboo, and the deceased and three others being suspected of having had a hand in the robbery, they were, by the orders of the first prisoner, who was the village reddy headman), seined and tied, some to the trunks of frees, and others to large stones. In the first case tho fevt of the unfortunate victims wore tied above ground, but tho mode adopted subsequently was even more cruel, for the men were bound with their faces exposed to the scorching rays of tho sun, with, their hands tied above their heads. The wliole five having been firmly bound, cold water was, by the orders of the first prisoner, poured upon the ligatures with the object of tightening the bonds

and thereby increasing the suffering of the suspected men. After this the first prisoner poured scalding water over the hands and arms of the sufferers. The object of this was to extort a confession of their guilt, and a statement implicating others. After the men had suffered excruciating agony for eight hours, and were released, it was found that one of them was dead, which the others were unable to move. Two of them died in hospital, whither they were sent for treatment; one expired in hie village, while the fifth was able to give his evidence before the committing magistrate, but never rallied from the effects of the torture, and died after the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. The medical evidence was sickening in its details, as it described how the arms, hands, and lower extremeties of the victims had become ■ gangrenous,' and how the fingers had rotted and dropped off. The authority and influence a reddy usually has in a village went in a great measure to deter the spectators of this wholesale murder from interfering on behalf of the tortured men. The Court convicted the first, second, fourth, and fifth prisoners, and sentenced them as follows : —The first to death, and the second, fourth, and fifth to transportation for life. The third prisoner was acquitted.