Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he has any official knowledge of two cases recently tried in the Punjaub, one before Major Buck, the district magistrate at Lahore, and the other before the sessions judge at Birbhum, in which several policemen have been convicted of torturing prisoners to death; whether he can state what was the nature of the alleged torture; whether the accused policemen were charged with murder; and what was the punishment inflicted?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe Secretary of State has no official information regarding these cases, but I understand that in the first case the sentences varied from four to five years' rigorous imprisonment, and in the second case the judge, disagreeing with the assessors who were in favour of acquittal, passed sentence ranging from two to five years' rigorous imprisonment. I1106W cannot say what was the precise nature of the offence or the charge in either case.