The Operations Commence

Abstract

As the operations to suppress thuggee gradually progressed, the marked disparities between procedures in the different regions became more apparent. In 1826, Fraser, the agent at Sagar, held proceedings over a gang of suspected thugs, and as most of the prisoners confessed to murders, and stolen property was recognised as well as bodies exhumed, the truth of their depositions was considered proven.¹ Fraser committed them for trial and the Government soon passed sentences on these thugs, the first ever to be formally convicted and punished by the British authorities: Two were sentenced to death by hanging, 29 were deemed guilty of being accomplices to robbery and murder and were sentenced to transportation for life. Three of the prisoners, who had provided information or not participated in the crimes of the gang, were kept in confinement against security for their future good conduct.² Obviously a significant change had taken place since a gang of thugs could now be convicted almost exclusively on their own confessions, which in spite of numerous attempts had not been feasible in the preceding decade and a half. Sagar and Narbada were established as ‘Non-Regulation Territories’ in 1818, which meant that the regulations usually governing the Company’s possessions were not in force and instead the agent, that is Fraser, was invested with virtually unlimited powers and referred directly to the Government. The reason for this arrangement was that the situation in the areas designated non-regulatory was considered to be too chaotic and disorderly for normal legal procedures to work efficiently. It is worth noticing that it was not the change of regulations that enabled the successful conviction of thugs, but rather the extraordinary arrangement of areas in which the regulations did not apply.