§ 53. Mr. LANSBURYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the case known as the Rajpal assault case, when a sentence of seven years' rigorous imprisonment was passed on the prisoner, three years of the sentence to be passed in solitary confinement; whether the Secretary of State intends to cancel that part of the sentence involving solitary confinement; and will he state how many sentences of solitary imprisonment have been inflicted during the past two years?
§ Earl WINTERTONMy Noble Friend has received a report that the sentence passed in this case by the District magistrate was one of seven years' rigorous imprisonment, including solitary confinement for three months, not three years. An appeal against the judgment has been preferred, but, if it is upheld, the convict would not, under the law and the gaol rules, undergo solitary confinement unless he were medically fit, and the confinement would not exceed a period of seven days in any month, with intervals equal to such periods. As regards the rest of the question, inquiry was made of the Government of India last mail whether figures were available as asked for in the hon. Member's question of the 12th December.