§ SIR W. WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to a recent case before the Calcutta High Court, in which Lieutenant Kennedy, the Deputy Commissioner of Nowgong, in Assam, is stated to have destroyed documents filed as evidence in a criminal proceeding; whether he is aware that Lieutenant Kennedy, while a charge of criminal breach of trust initiated by him against the Treasurer of Nowgong was under inquiry, abstracted from the Court's record seven documents relied on by the accused person, and tore them in pieces, remarking that these documents were put in to get him into trouble; that the Chief Commissioner of Assam stigmatised this action of Lieutenant Kennedy as "most reprehensible;" and that, when the case came up before the High Court, Mr. Justice Trevelyan remarked that if any other person had done what Lieutenant Kennedy did he would have been prosecuted; whether Lieutenant Kennedy has been since promoted; and whether the Secretary of State will cause inquiry to be made, and proper proceedings to be taken in the case?
§ * THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL,) Beds, N.The Secretary of State has no information as to this matter, but he will cause inquiry to be made respecting it.