Torture in India — The Misery Suffered by Prisoners

1878

Torture in India

A paper published in India says: The following facts, elicited at the trial at the recent sessions in North Arcot of a case in which five natives were charged with having murdered five of their caste people, show that torture is not yet extinct in that part of the world: The prisoners' fields were robbed of a small quantity of 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), seized and tied, some to the trunks of trees and others to large stones.

In the first case the feet of the unfortunate victims were tied above ground, but the mode adopted subsequently was even more cruel, for the men were bound with their faces exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, with their hands tied above their heads. The whole 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, while the others were unable to move. Two of them died in the hospital, whither they were sent for treatment; one expired in his 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 is described how the arms, hands and lower extremities 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 the first to death and the others to transportation for life.