Golab Bano case : Extracts from The Methods of the Indian Police in the 20th Century (1910) by Justice Frederic Mackarness, M.A. (Oxford), Barrister at Law, Ex-MP, County Court Judge, London Circuit, 50 Sussex, since 1911:― “But I must mention one other case in the Punjab, in which the alleged torture was of a more atrocious kind, & the conduct of the Executive of the most unsatisfactory character…. The Chief Court: A woman named Gulāb Bāno was convicted early in 1908, upon her own confession, of poisoning her husband, & sentenced by Mr Kennedy, the Sessions Judge, with illicit concurrence of three Indian assessors, to be hanged. She appealed to the Chief Court at Lahore, consisting of Mr Justice Robertson & Mr Justice Rattigan, who in December of that year, set aside the conviction on the ground that the confession was most probably extorted by outrage of the most horrible kind inflicted on the woman by the Police. The Judges exhorted the Executive in earnest language to ‘institute a most stark Judicial Inquiry’ into the conduct of the police. Nevertheless, for nine months the world heard nothing, & the police continued in the service of the Govt. At the end of that time appeared a ‘Resolution’ by the Govt. of the Punjab completely discrediting the views, both of the Judges & of the prison doctor, who examined the woman, & completely exonerating the police. The ‘Resolution’ purports to be the result of a secret enquiry. But no one knows by whom it was held, except that it was by the police. No one knows who was examined, except that none of the police implicated were cross-examined…. Parliament has received little information on the subject. ― The Alleged Torture: Here is the horrible story of what the police did to the woman, in the very words of the Official ‘Resolution’: On the evening of June 7th she complained to the matron of the jail that the police had maltreated her. The hospital attendant was summoned, & to him Gulāb Bāno (the woman) made a statement to the following effect: ‘I was hung to the roof by the police (Superintendent & two head constables) in my village during the investigation, with a rope in my legs, & a baton smeared with green chillies was thrust up my anal opening.’ The matter was reported the next day to the Civil Surgeon, who examined the woman & found that she was suffering from fever, & was in a weak state. He ordered her to be prepared for examination, & next morning examined her, & found her, to use his own words, ‘terribly inflamed & ulcerated, a condition which, in my opinion, could only have been caused by an assault similar to that described by the prisoner’
He subsequently added that ‘the assault might have been committed on or about May 12th (the date given by the woman), but more probably about June 2nd.’ …. To the District Judge the woman gave a ‘Very clear & detailed account” of how the police had first beat & kicked her with the object of making her confess, then tied a rope round her feet & suspended her from a rafter of the roof. Then (so the official account runs) ‘a police baton, smeared with red peppers, was thrust into her rectum.’ She described minutely how the red pepper was ground, mixed with water, & applied to the baton, & what part each of the police concerned took in the proceedings. Under this agony she confessed to having poisoned her husband…. She retracted the confession on June 7th, first to the matron of the jail & then to the hospital assistant & the civil surgeon, & on the 10th formally before the district magistrate. Nevertheless, she was committed by him for trial, & convicted & sentenced to be hanged by the Sessions Judge. How could this possibly come about? ― Death of the Woman: The acquittal of, & the order for, the discharge of the woman dated from December 12th, 1908. Then comes a deplorable & impressive fact. The poor woman ‘died of fever on January 10th at the village of Ganda Kass, Police Station Pindi Gheb,’ to quote the official account. But the extraordinary thing is that though she died within a few weeks of the delivery of the Chief Court’s judgment, yet no one in India, or here [London], seems to have been made acquainted with the fact of her death until about October, 1909. During the intervening nine months the Govt. ‘enquiry’ went slowly & silently on. Frequent questions were asked in Parliament with no result…. At last came an elaborate decision by the Lieutenant-Governor to the effect that the police were entirely innocent. But not one word was said to convey to the world that the most important witness, namely, the poor woman herself, had not been examined, & had been dead for nine months. Was there any enquiry as to how her fever was caused, any medical report, or any inquest? ― Judges’ Reply to the Executive: As soon as the Govt. decision appeared the Judges took the almost unprecedented course of saying that they would formally reply to it in open court. Accordingly, on November 20th, 1909, at Lahore, they read a long & carefully prepared ‘order’ recapitulating in full detail the grounds on which they had made the grave reflections upon the police. They again asserted that they did not in any way prejudice the case against the police, but that their suspicions still remained. They laid stress upon the fact that for three or four days the poor woman was taken by the police away from the jail without any warrant, & ‘was returned to jail in a deplorable condition
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