Stories of Bengalee Life/His Release/Chapter 5
V
The case was taken up on the appointed day. On the day following the arrest of these boys, some pleaders of the local bar stood sureties for them and got them released on bail. The same gentlemen, at a sacrifice of their valuable time and money, were looking after the case and defending the boys in court.
The Khansama stuck to his former statement. In cross-examination the defence pleader asked him whether it was not a fact that his master the Sahib had caused the injury on his forehead by throwing the biscuit-tin at him. The Khansama stoutly denied it, persisting in his statement that the injury was caused by the boys who had slapped and cuffed him on the forehead.
The tea-planter, following in the wake of the "dd natives," emphatically denied having hurled the tin at his servant's head.
Some bazar people spoke to the breaking of the biscuit box in the street and the boys' dancing on the scattered contents of it, but could not identify the accused as having been in the assembly. The Police put in the broken tin rescued from the gutter and an envelope containing dust mixed with powdered biscuits, as "Exhibits" in the case.
The merchant identified the boys and swore that they were among those who came into his shop with the Khansama and insisted on the English tin being taken back and the money refunded. A little while after they had left, he heard many voices shouting Bande Mataram from near the Swadeshi shop. In cross-examination he was asked whether or not school-boys for some time past had been picketing in front of his shop and thereby caused him much loss and annoyance. The man admitted the picketing and the consequent loss but denied that it had caused him the slightest annoyance.
The Assistant Surgeon deposed that the injury on the forehead was an incised wound, probably caused by some sharp and hard substance. In cross-examination by the defence he said that it could not have been caused by slaps and fisticuffs.
The case was then adjourned for defence evidence. On the appointed day the man who kept the Swadeshi Stores came and swore to everything that had actually happened. He also said that none of the boys in the dock were among those who came to his shop to buy the deshi tin.
A doctor in private practice said that he was passing along the street when he found some boys talking to the Khansama. He also swore to the fact that the latter had given up the tin to the boys quite voluntarily and expressed his willingness to take a tin of deshi biscuits in exchange. He also saw the Khansama accompanying the the boys to the Swadeshi Stores. In cross-examination by the Police he admitted that he himself was a staunch Swadeshi and held shares worth two hundred rupees in the Swadeshi Stores in question.
The Khansama of the Dak Bungalow was next examined. He deposed that the tea-planter had thrown a biscuit-tin at the head of his servant who fell down on a heap of rubbish and sustained injuries. He was positive that when the servant returned from the bazar he had no injuries on his person at all. In cross-examination he admitted that the pleader Babus were his occasional customers, ordering roast fowl and cutlets to be cooked, and that the servants of these Babus came to fetch the things away after nightfall. That was a source of some profit to him.
The case then closed and the arguments were heard. It was ordered that the judgment would be delivered that day week.
In the meantime the Deputy Babu was seen paying two or three calls to the District Magistrate at his kothi. People began to whisper to each other that these visits presaged evil.
On the day the judgment was due, Nagendra Babu's ejlash room was crowded to suffocation. A large number of school boys had attended. There were others also, eager to know the result.
Nagendra Babu delivered the judgment. The accused were all found guilty and sentenced to undergo three months' rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of fifty rupees each.
As soon as this was known, the boys gave three shouts of Bande Mataram, just to cheer up the accused. With great difficulty the Police stopped the outburst and cleared the room.
Babu Kalikant, the leading pleader for the defence, asked for the judgment and read it through. The Deputy Magistrate wrote that no doubt there were many discrepancies in the prosecution evidence but they were only "minor discrepancies." If anything, they served to show that the prosecution witnesses were not tutored. It was true that some witnesses said that the unlawful assembly consisted of fifteen or twenty boys while others gave the number as fifty or sixty. None of these witnesses actually counted the number of boys there, so it was quite natural that they should differ in their estimates. The complainant swore that the accused had caused the injury on his forehead by slaps and fisticuffs while the medical evidence was that it could not have been caused in that manner. The learned pleader for the defence laid great stress on this point and invited the Court to hold that the case was a got-up one. But to the Deputy Magistrate's mind, the complainant during the occurrence must have been so confounded and panic-struck that it was impossible for him to remember precisely by what means the boys caused him the injury in question. As regards the defence witnesses the Deputy was of opinion that they all belonged to the so-called Swadeshi party and so they must be telling untruths to save the boys. The defence pleader argued that the Dak Bungalow Khansama was an independent witness and should be believed. But it appeared to the Deputy Magistrate that that individual was constantly patronised by the pleaders (who were all Swadeshites) and so it was not likely that he would incur the displeasure of his every-day customers by speaking the truth to support the case of a chance visitor like the tea-planter Sahib.
The pleaders immediately applied for and obtained a certified copy of the judgment. They then approached the Sessions Judge for filing an appeal and prayed for bail.
Hundreds of school-boys were waiting outside the Judge's Court. As soon as they heard that bail was granted, they began shouting Bande Mataram vociferously. They got hold of an empty gharry and put the three accused inside it. They then unharnessed the horses and began dragging the gharry themselves. Forming themselves into a procession they paraded through all the important streets of the town, singing a popular song glorifying martyrs.