Krishna Kanta's Will (Chatterjee, Knight)/Part 2/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII.
fifth year.
Bhramar went back to her father-in-law's house, and lived in continual expectation of her husband's return. But he came not. Days, months passed; the husband came not, nor any news of him. Thus the third year passed. Gobind Lâl came not. The fourth year also passed; still no Gobind Lâl appeared. Meanwhile Bhramar's disease gained upon her—asthmatic cough, increasing emaciation. Death in the foreground, it seemed as if she would not see her husband again in this world.
The fifth year opened. In this fifth year there was great confusion. News came to Haridrâ that Gobind Lâl was caught, that he had been living at Brindâban disguised as a Boirâgi, and that there the police had arrested him and taken him on to Jessore, where he was to be tried.
Bhramar heard this news from rumour only. This was the origin of the rumour. Gobind Lâl had written a letter to Bhramar's Dewân, saying, "I am on the way to gaol. If you think it suitable to spend some portion of my father's property in saving me, now is the time. I am not worthy of it; I do not wish to live; but I do beg that I may be saved from the gallows. Do not let it be known that I have written a letter."
The Dewân did not proclaim that he had received a letter; he sent the news as a report to the women's apartments.
On hearing it Bhramar sent for her father, who came immediately. Bhramar took out and gave him bank notes and securities for 50,000 rupees, and, with tears in her eyes, said, "Father, do all that can be done; let me not be driven to commit suicide."
Mâdhabi Nâth, weeping bitterly, said, "My child, rest quite assured; I shall go to Jessore this very day. Be not anxious. There is no proof that Gobind Lâl committed a murder. I engage to bring back 48,000 rupees out of this sum of money, and my son-in-law to his own country."
Then Mâdhabi Nâth went to Jessore. He heard that the evidence was terribly strong. Inspector Pichel Khân had investigated the case and sent up the witnesses. He found no trace of Rupo, Sonâ, or any other eye-witnesses to whom the facts were known. Sonâ was with Nishâkar, and no one knew to what part of the country Rupo had gone. Finding the evidence so weak, Pichel Khân had, by bribes, prepared three witnesses who had deposed before the magistrate that they had with their own eyes seen Gobind Lâl, alias Chuni Lâl, fire a pistol and kill Rohini, and that they had gone there to listen to the singing. The magistrate was an Englishman, and had been always praised by the Government for his good administration. He, relying on this evidence, committed Gobind Lâl for trial at the sessions. When Mâdhabi Nâth reached Jessore Gobind Lâl was wasting away in gaol. Mâdhabi Nâth was greatly depressed on hearing the whole state of the case. He took the names and addresses of the witnesses, went to their homes, and said to them, "What you said to the magistrate is done with. You must speak very differently before the judge. You must say, 'We know nothing.' Here, each of you, take 500 rupees in cash. If the defendant is set free, I will give you each another 500 rupees."
The witnesses said, "Why, in that case we shall be punished for committing perjury."
"Fear not. I shall spend money to get witnesses to prove that Pichel Khân forced you, by blows, to give false evidence before the magistrate."
The witnesses and their ancestors for fourteen generations had never seen so large a sum as 1,000 rupees all at once. They immediately agreed.
The day of trial before the session came round. Gobind Lâl stood in the dock. The oath was administered to the first witness. The Government Vakil asked him, "Do you know this Gobind Lâl, alias Chuni Lâl?"
"No, I think not."
"Have you never seen him?"
"No."
"Do you know Rohini?"
"Which Rohini?"
"The one who used to be in the Koti at Prasâdpur."
"I, and my father before me, have never been to the Prasâdpur Koti."
"How did Rohini die?"
"I hear she committed suicide."
"Do you know anything of the murder?"
"Nothing at all."
The Vakil then read over to the witness the deposition he had made before the magistrate, and then asked, "Come, now, did you not say all that to the Magistrate Sâhib?"
"Yes, I said it."
"But if you know nothing, why did you say it?"
"Because of the beating. Pichel Khân covered my whole body with blows." Here the witness wept. Some days previously, in a quarrel with his own brother about some land he had sustained some blows. The marks remained. These the witness, with unblushing face, displayed to the judge, as the marks of Pichel Khân's beating.
Much perplexed, the Vakil called the other witness. The second witness spoke to the same effect. Before coming he had painted marks on his back with the juice of the rangan tree. One can do everything for a thousand rupees, and these he showed to the judge.
The third witness gave evidence to the same effect. The judge discharged the defendant, the evidence being insufficient, and, being much dissatisfied with Pichel Khân's doings, directed the magistrate to inquire into them.
Gobind Lâl was amazed to find the witnesses so favourable to him at the trial, but when he saw Mâdhabi Nâth among the crowd he understood the whole. Though discharged he had to return to the gaol, as he could not be released till the gaoler had received a written order to that effect. When he arrived at the gaol Mâdhabi Nâth went to him and whispered in his ear, "When you leave the gaol come and see me, I lodge in such a place."
But Gobind Lâl did not go to Mâdhabi Nâth. Where he did go no one knew. Mâdhabi Nâth sought him for four or five days, but found no trace of him, so he was obliged to return alone to Haridrâ.