THE PUNJAB. (Hansard, 12 June 1890)

§ MR. BRADLAUGH (Northampton)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the Secretary of State has any information respecting the action of the police in certain cases which are reported to have occurred in Amritsar, a city in the Punjab, with a population of over 150,000; whether, under the Punjab Police Act, or any other law in India, it is permissible for the Police Authorities to keep descriptive rolls of parties who have been in prison, and, while these parties are at liberty and are charged with no offence, to subject their persons to rigorous examination in the public streets; whether certain girls were so examined in public places in Lahore; whether he is aware that a girl named Vid Koer was thus examined in a public bazaar, and that, in consequence of this treatment, she absconded, was found by the police, detained in custody, and not allowed to see her parents or to be released until she signed an agreement denying the examination of her person in public, although the examination was witnessed by many people who are ready to testify thereto; whether he is aware that a Brahmin girl, aged 20, named Dhau Deir, was, against her protest, and in spite of her cries, taken into a public street and examined, no occasion for this as regards wrongdoing on her part being even alleged; whether he can state how men and women have been so examined, and whether the particulars of such examinations are contained in descriptive rolls in the Police Register; who is the officer responsible for these occurrences; whether he has been punished in any way; and whether an 700 inquiry has been instituted, and, if the inquiry is simply of a Departmental kind, whether the Secretary of State will give instructions for an independent and thorough investigation?