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 [‎88r] (75/100)

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3o. I have already referred to the many and serious difficulties which my
detective officers have had to contend with in their efforts to obtain evidence,
but for the presence of the Gaekwar in Baroda their work would, I need hardly
say, have been greatly simplified and even more direct proof would doubtless
ha\ e been forthcoming.^ Still considering the manner in which all the evidence
has been gathered from independent sources, the impossibility, owing to strictest
precaution of any collusion, the demeanour of the deponents under examination,
and the numerous minor incidents which accumulate corroboration round their
testimony, I may with confidence assert, speaking after 20 years' experience
of Ponce duty, that no doubt whatever is left in my mind that His Highness
Mulhar Kao Gaekwar himself personally instigated the criminal attempt against
Colonel Phayre's life. ^ o i &
36. Under your orders I submitted the depositions and notes of evidence
to the Advocate-General on the 30th December, and have the honor to append
his opinion in original (lettered W) after review of them, and I trust that the
duty which you committed to me may now be considered to have been accom
plished as satisfactorily as could possibly have been hoped for under the
circumstances.
37. In forwarding a copy of this report 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. ,
it shall be my duty to bring prominently to their notice the obligation which
I am under to the Police Inspectors, Khan Bahadoor Meer Akbar Ali, Rao
Bahadoor Gujjanand Vittul Shastree and Khan Bahadoor Meer Abdool Ali,
for the valuable assistance which their zeal and ability has rendered me in the
conduct of this important enquiry, and which I trust may obtain suitable
recognition.
38. Requesting permission to return to my duty in Bombay.
Appendix A.
Shaik Dawood Shaik Raheem , Mussulman, age 22, living in the Camp Bazaar,
Baroda, states:—
I am a bullock shigram driver in the service of one Chotoo Baker.
I know the Mussulman ayah now in the service of the Assistant Resi
dent, Mr. Boevey, and who formerly lived at 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. . I also know
a Mussulman boy in the service of the ayah named Chotoo. I am also
acquainted with the ayah's husband, Abdoola. A few days before the Dewalee,
the ayah's husband came to my stables at night and ordered my shigram, which
I got ready, and under his direction stood it on the road about 15 paces on the
city side of Dadabhoy's shop-, where the ayah with the boy Chotoo very soon
arrived. They both got in the shigram, and the ayah directed me to drive to
the Sircar's Hawalee* in the city. On arrival at the Arab Khana (Arab's
# , guard), the ayah told me to call Salim, an Arab
sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. , which I did, and she then got out of the
shigram and accompanied him up the stairs. I understood she was going to see
the Maharaja. The boy Chotoo remained with me, and he and I went to sleep
on the carriage cushions, which I placed on the side of the road close to the
carriage. In about an hour Salim and the ayah returned to the carriage, into
which she and the boy got, and I drove them back to the place from where
they had first got into the carriage at the Camp Bazaar. The ayah and the boy
went away towards 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. , and in the morning the ayah's husband came
and paid me Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. 2 on account of my fare.
Taken before me this 17th day of December 1874.
(Sd.) F. H. S outer,
Commissioner of Police, Bombay.