CLAIM IN INDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 7

CLAIM IN INDIA

BY MAN ALLEGEDLY CREMATED STORY UPHELD IN HIGH COURT. APPEAL TO PRIVY COUNCIL. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, November 11. Thirty-two years ago the son of an Indian- rajah was carried to the burning grounds for cremation and the reputed widow says the body was burned, but now the Calcutta High Court has upheld the claim of a man who says he is the man allegedly cremated. Against this decision the Ranee Bibhabati of Bhowal is appealing to the Privy Council. This will open the last stage of the Bhowal Sannkasi case in which 1500 witnesses have been examined in the last three years and also £6OOO spent on printing the evidence and photographs compiled in an effort to decide whether Ramendra Narayan Ray is as he claims the second Kumar of Bhowal with the title to a magnificent estate and an income of £lOO,OOO annually. The Privy Council will have over two thousand documents to help it to decide one of the longest and most remarkable cases in Indian history. The Ranee says she and Ramedra visited Darjeeling in 1909. When her husband died the body was cremated but Ramedra claims that he was taken for dead after which he was carried to the cremation ground where the attendants abandoned him in a terrific storm. When he regained consciousness he found himself surrounded by naked Sadhus (wandering beggars). Ramendra declares he lost his memory and thereafter roamed India with the Sadhus until 1920 when he returned home, and, he claims, his sister and grandmother recognised him as the second son of the late Rajah of Bhowal. When the Ranee refused to admit that he was the real Kumar of Bhowal and her husband he began a suit which the Lower Court, also the High Court upheld.