Page:Hyderabad in 1890 and 1891; comprising all the letters on Hyderabad affairs written to the Madras Hindu by its Hyderabad correspondent during 1890 and 1891 (IA hyderabadin1890100bangrich).pdf/57

Page 49 HYDERABAD, 3rd January, 1891.

The procedure adopted by Mr. Hafiz Ahmed Raza Khan in the trial of the murder case may well make the civilized world "gasp and stare," and set the peace-loving Hydrabadee thinking as to whether his life and property are safe within the Moglai limits even in this century and within sight of the British flag. A man may lay himself open to the charge of having committed any mortal offence, may even commit murder, secure from the terrors of justice-provided he be influential. Or rather, as a gentleman put it the other day:-"Of what use is a man's respectability in Hyderabad if he cannot set law at defiance with impunity?" This is perhaps hard judging, but it is warranted by the information that comes to me from a trustworthy quarter about the City murder case. Hafiz Ahmed Raza Khan has "made out" an order for the release of two of the accused, viz., Abdul Wahid the pleader, and Wazeeran, the decoy; and the order will be enforced when the ease comes up for hearing next, i.e., on Saturday, the 10th instant. And his reasons are many forsooth. The jatka in which the murdered woman was taken into the city having stopped some way from the scene of murder it could not be presumed from the driver's evidence that Abdul Wahid accompanied the deceased thereto. One of the two letters found in Abdool Husain's house goes to show that for sometime before the murder Abdul Wahid and Abdool Husain were not on good terms; and so Abdool Husain's statements could not with reason be made to incriminate Abdul Wahid. Abdul Rahman, Abdul Wahid's servant, being an accomplice could not be expected to speak the truth about his master. And the evidence of the murdered woman's daughter is worth nothing as she might have been "tutored" into giving it by the Police. So our City Judge disposes of such evidence as he cared to take notice of against Abdul Wahid, and orders his release. Besides, he is of opinion that the Police trumped up this case against the brother of the Crown Prosecutor in the Treasury Frands Cases to please some friends, and recommends the dismissal of the

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