Montgomery jail incident

WE have already had something to say about the report of the Punjab Jail Committee on the assault on Lala Bodh Rai, MLC, at the Montgomery jail and the action taken by the government on that report. The committee found that the assault was premeditated and instigated by the jailor. This finding is, however, not unanimous. While Mr Justice Jai Lal and Sheikh Abdul Qadir are agreed as to the guilt of jailor Naimatullah Khan, the president of the committee, OF Lumsden, holds that “the case against the jailor falls short of proof, though it certainly amounts to strong suspicion.” As to the remarks of Mr Justice Jai Lal and Sheikh Abdul Qadir regarding the jailor’s attempts at avoiding an adequate inquiry into the incident, suppressing the correct facts, screening the offending prisoners as also the deliberately false report made by him in his journal about the incident, Lumsden is in agreement with the conclusions of his colleagues. It would thus appear that even Lumsden agrees that the jailor behaved in a most improper manner and that even if he did not actually instigate the crime, his whole conduct was reprehensible; and he not only failed in his duty as a jailor to take proper steps for instituting an inquiry when the incident was brought to his notice, but actually took it upon himself to fabricate false evidence to explain away the assault and save the offending prisoners from the consequences of their act. We refuse to believe that the jailor would have done all this unless he was intimately concerned in the matter and sympathised with the criminals.