In H, M, Police Court on Wednes-ay, before the Magistrate, Mr. 1. T. Morris, Sucha Singh, an Indian uchman, was charged on remand grievously assaulting, Indar and his wife Ram Kor, Mr, B. 'T, Maitland prosecuted on behalf of the police and Mr. Tycho Wing appeared for the accused.
Dr, A: D. Wall said that hol operated on the complainant, Indar Singh, on the night of October 4- The patient was suffering from a Sompound, depressed fracture of the fokull, Fragments of bone had been driven through the membrane covering the brain and into the Drain substance, The brain was inured and it was necessary to re-Move some of the brain. substance. he injury suffered was a sermanen'. one and very dangerous to life. here was also an injury to the patient's left log, The patient, was under the doctor's care for two weeks, The female complainant, Rem Kor, had sustained an injury to her right hand which was not dangerous to, life but would result, permanent disability.—Cross-examined by Mr. Wing, witness eeld that the male patient would probably, be mentally slower, suf~ for from severe headaches and his memory might be affected, The Story of the Assault The complainant, Indar Singh, who was assisted to the witness tox and given a seat, said that on the evening in question at sbout 6 o'clock he was sitting down on a wharf at Dixwell Road with his wife and conversing with a Chinese. He was facing the river. The accused came from behind and boat him on the head with a heavy stick. 'The third blow rendered' him unconscious. His wife eried out:—"Don't eat him, he will die." The.accused replied:—"I will take care of you." (The interpreter here explainefi that the expression used coneyed the meaning that the accus-fed would beat the woman.)—. Complainant: did not know what hap-Pened after that and he was unfeonseious for 24 hours, Asked by counsel if he could. advance any] reason for the assault, complainant id that about a year. aga both hho and the accused were fined $5 in the Police Court for fighting. Further than this, he, could not give e280" for the assault," Cross-examined, complainant. said that it 'Was. little dark at the, time assault took place but he.was quite Jeertain, that it was, the accused. who had struck him, 'The. female. complainant, Ram Kor, who. appeared with her right hand' in. splints, said. that the accused beat her: after hor husband thad been retidered unconscious. /cross-examination, she said that she was married in India five years ago. Hee husband was not of a jealous nature "and. there had been no trouble on. account of jealousy. She! had known the accused for about three years but after the affair of year. ago, accused had given up visiting their house and she had not soon thun since that time. She was quite sure that accused: was the person who had assaulted her and her husband.
The accused, Sucha Singh, said] that since the time when he and the male comptninant were fined in the Police Court, he had had nothing to do with the pair, He Jdenied committing the assault and (id that he was working at the wharf on the night in question. Under eross-examination, accused insisted that he was not the man whothad assaulted the complain. ants, The Sentence Mr. Wing briefly addressed the Court and said. the injury to the male complainant's brain may have impaired his recollection of. the events of the: evening. in question, and counsel further submitted that} the complainant was in such a state that the Court could not rely on his story. Counsel went on to say that the experience of the Court was that, in Sikh cases, revenge in. variably took place immediately and it was quite foreign to the character of Sikhs to wait for such a long time us a year before taking. revenge. There was no conceivable motive for striking the woman and ho submitted that it was not the accused who had committed the grievous assault, The Magistrate found the accus-Jed guilty and characterized the assault as an extremely brutal one. Accused was very fortunate that a more serious charge had not been preferred against him, He would 0 to prison for three months, with hard labour, fox the assault on the male complainant, and one month, with hard labour, for the assault fon the female complainant,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.