27
punished as well as parting with the money, then it would mean that that man who profitted by the frauds has been bribed to incriminate others. Besides this, I have to mention another fact which goes far to show that the proceedings of the Government are not dictated by the best of motives. I mean the ommission of the then Treasurer's name or the names of his office men from the list of the accused in the second case-which has caused not a little surprise in knowing circles here. The cheque for Rs. 47,000 was payable to Chaturbuja Dass, aud yet the money was paid to Saligram. And the statement that it was done so on the strength of a verbal order from Jaya Rao, the Deputy Accountant General, does not count for much in the face of the fact that Jaya Rao denies having issued such an order. The systematic omission of the then treasurer's name from the list of the accused in this as well as the first case in connection with the frauds, is significant. You will see from the above that I have said nothing to prejudice the case now pending.
A case has recently come to my knowledge, which repre- sents Mushtak Hussain's Government in no favourable light- or rather which throws a flood of light on the mysterious ways of it. One Tirumal Rao, once a clerk in the Accountant General's Office, inherited on the demise of his two elder brothers, all their Muktas and Rasoons. He had been in the enjoyment of the revenues of these Muktas and Rasoons for sometime, when he was asked, I am told to do something which he refused to do, either because he was honest or because he dreaded consequences. And in consequence, official persecution was initiated against him. The question of Tirmal Rao's right to inherit his brother's estate was raked up. And a precis of the case was made up by the most trusted of Mushtak Hussain's assistants in the Revenue Secretariat, so as to warrant the confiscation of the Muktas and Rasoons. Mushtak Hussain, the minister de facto, signed the precis; the Nawab Basheerud Daulah, the puppet minister, approved of the confiscation; and Tirimal's Muktas and Rasoons were duly confiscated. I may state here
