Enclosures of letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.11, dated 15 January 1875: Nos. 3 to 45 of Abstract of Contents, from the Officiating Under-Secretary to the Government of India, Fort William [‎87v] (74/100)

Maharaja to administer poison to his master, I had him brought before me on
my late visit to Bombay, and beg to attach his deposition, Appendix U, which
I since caused to be taken down. It will be seen that he denies having ever
visited the Gaekwar, but admits that he asked for and received Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. 60 from
him through Salirn, and states that he was pressed to visit the Maharaja by Salim,
who offered to bring a carriage to take him to the Palace, but that he refused to go.
28. As there is no reason whatever to doubt Rowjee's evidence so much
of which has already been proved to be quite accurate, and as he has no apparent
motive for falselv accusing the Butler Pedro, I am, considerinsr all the circum-
stances, fully convinced that the butler did visit the Gaekwar, and that the
account of what took place at the Palace as related by Rowjee is correct. It
could not, however, be reasonably expected that a servant would readily admit
that he had on the offer of a large bribe shamelessly consented to betray his
duty and murder a master whom he had served for 25 years.
29. I have endeavoured in this report to supply a brief narative of the
steps taken by the Detective Police from the beginning, and to show how the
enquiry progressed step by step each day, and have left the depositions and
other appendices to supply all minor details. There is however an important
piece of evidence which does not appear from those papers which I here submit.
30. Rowjee Havildar Custodian; police sergeant; jail or prison guard. has stated in his deposition that after the first occasion
when he consented to administer poison to Colonel Phayre, and received the
powders for that purpose, he two or three times put them into the sherbet as
opportunity offered, and that this was done a few days before the final powder
was administered.
31. Colonel Phayre in his report to Government, No. 379-12/1, dated 17th
November 1874, stated that on Friday, the 6th, and Saturday, the 7th, he was
feeling sick at stomach with a strange confused feeling in his head, but that he
was better on Sunday, and on Monday he discovered the poison in the sherbet.
1 consider this tact as strongly corroborative of Rowjee's statement, for I may
add that the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Surgeon has stated that the symptoms reported by
Colonel Phayre are such as are known to result from taking arsenic.
32. That the Gaekwar during his visit to the Resident on the morning
on Monday, the 9th, should have talked of sickness prevailing in the city, and
that he himself had lately been suffering from fever accompanied by purging
and dizziness in the head, was a very significant circumstance.
38. Before closing my report I beg leave to call attention to the following
circumstances as bearing upon the subject of by enquiry :—
In August 1873, viz., before the sitting of the Baroda Commission, Police
Inspector Rao Bahadoor Gujjanand Wittul Shastree was deputed to make
secret enquiry into the truth of reports which had reached Government of a
seditious movement in some of the Native States.
That officer, under date 19th August 1873, made a report to his official
superior, the Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad, which is herewith sent on
♦ Lettered v. original,* in which it will be observed that the
. . desire of His Highness Mulhar Rao to employ poison
against the Resident is mentioned and Yeshwunt Rao Yeola is reported to be
a likely man to be employed on such business, and it is reported that "jadoo"
and "anoostan" sorcery and magic are at that time, August 1873, beino-
used through Yeshwunt Rao against Colonel Phayre.
n i 34 i' ^ ometi ^ e previously to the discovery of the attempt to poison
ttv i i 16 beei1 re P orted to me b y my chief detective officers,
Khan Bahadoor Meer Akbar Ali and Khan Bahadoor Meer Abdool Ali, that
t oi s weie 3(!ing made in Bombay by the Gaekwar's confidential agents to secure
PhnvTTi a Skll l ed SOrcerer with the ob j ect of g ettin g "d ^ Colonel
fnrnLL^fi f- S " i re P or ted this fact to the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. , and
TT.nmVnfr i + U Particulars as brought to my notice, which were, I believe, com
municated to the Government of India
66