INDIAN EDITOR FINED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 474, 2 October 1928, Page 9

INDIAN EDITOR FINED

STIRRING UP HATRED STORY OF A TRAIN SMASH (United Service) Reed. 10.15 a.m. CALCUTTA, Mon. The editor of the Calcutta Nationalist daily, “Forward,” has been sentenced to imprisonment for three months and lined 5,000 rupees for publication of the “horrified eye-wit-nesses’ ” allegation that 50 per cent, of the Indian victims of the Belur railway disaster were knocked on the head with iron rods by the European staff of the relief train, in order to save the trouble of rescue. In the course of* a scathing judgment, the magistrate held that there was not the slightest foundation for the allegations. The article was written for the purpose of creating hatred of the Europeans by the Indians, and published with the same motive. When the police searched the paper’s office the manuscript had disappeared. The printer-foreman was fined £67. There is intense indignation among the Europeans over the publication in the chief Nationalist newspaper, “Forward,” ot letters by eye-witnesses, alleging - that the true death-roll in the recent railway smash has been deliberately concealed, said a Delhi message of July 14. “The dead and wounded were treated worse than dogs by the relief-train party,” said the newspaper. “The wounded were searched and killed. Where a cry arose from the wreckage a European came with a light. Then there was a sound of heavy blows and the voice ceased.” The writer offered to prove that the dead numbered more than 300, instead of 20, as reported. ITe said the dving were dispatched with rods. Many of ‘ the dead and wounded were conveyed to an unknown destination.