§ Mr. MONTAGUEasked the Under-Secretary of State for India the circumstances in which Mr. Ambica Charan Khan, one of the Bengal detenus, committed suicide; whether he left any written statement; and to what effect?
§ Earl WINTERTONI have no information, but am inquiring.
§ Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he can give any information about the health of Mr. Jibanlal Chatterjee, a political detenu who was recently medically examined in Calcutta and found to be suffering from phthisis; and whether it is intended to release this prisoner?
§ Earl WINTERTONI have no recent information about Mr. Chatterjee's health, but my information is that he has already been released and, so far as I know, is free to live anywhere outside Bengal.
§ Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the statement made by Mr. Satyendra Chandra Mitter, M.L.A., a detenu who was released unconditionally, that no indication 1426W had been given to him of the nature of the crimes he was supposed to have committed, and that when Mr. Lowman, Deputy-Inspector-General of the Police, visited him in Mandalay Gaol he informed him that his detention was purely preventive and not penal; and whether he can state how many of the Bengal detenus are in prison in similar circumstances?
§ Earl WINTERTONI have not seen the statement referred to. As regards the second part of the question, I think it is common knowledge that the object of detaining all these persons was not as a punishment for past crimes for which they have not been tried, but in order to prevent their conspiring to commit certain criminal acts.
§ Mr. RENNIE SMITHasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he can give any information as to the death of Mr. Jatindra Bhattacharya, a detenu, who is stated to have died of snake-bite?
§ Earl WINTERTONI have no information, but am inquiring.