Au Indian Robin Hood.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 471, 14 May 1890, Page 6

Au Indian Robin Hood.

Jiiunda, the notorious dacoit, appears from the accounts of his life given by the Indian papers to have been a kind of Indian R-obin Hood. He began his career in the native army, but soon left the service for the more congenial occupation of robbery. In 1874 he was captured and sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment. After breaking his arm in an attempt to escape he remained in Merrut Gaol till 1888 and became the most expert carpet weaver in the prison. On his release he collected a band which soon became the terror of Merrut and the adjoining districts. His usual course of operations was to pounce upon a village and call upon the local Shroff or banker to produce bis bonds and receipts, which were then publicly burnt, while the Shroff himself was plundered. This style of proceeding naturally made Jhunda popular with the indebted classes, who form a large proportion of the Indian rural population, and by their aid he has succeeded in defying the police for the last two years._ Like his English prototype, he is also said to have often been charitable to the poor. There was. at first some, doubt whether he was actually.killed, but his identity is now placed beyond question.