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a Sessions Judge, as described in the abovcmcntioncd Code of Criminal Procedure, to be
exercised over Native Indian subjects of Her Majesty, within the aforesaid territories,
according to the procedure prescribed by the said Code.
345. By notification No. 1927*0. P., dated 7th May 1880, Mr. B. Ffinch,
Deputy Director of Telegraphs in the
Political A., June 188 , Nos. 113*14.
Persian Gulf, was made a Justice of the
Peace under Act XXI of 1879 for the coast of the Mekran. The Governor-
General in Council at the same time directed that the High Court of Bombay
should be the Court to which the Justice of the Peace should commit cases for
trial.
346. Difficulties also arose in connection with the exercise of powers under
the notification of 1877 (paragraph 344
Political A., Octobir 1881, Noi. 274*87.
above), A native Indian committed the
offence of selling a slave on Sharga and afterwards went to Bombay. The Resi­
dent wanted to try him at Bushire as a senior Judge. But the point was raised
whether he could try a case in that capacity, which had not been committed to him
by a first class Magistrate. To remove doubts on this point notification No.
2402-E. P., dated 6th October 1881, was published concering the powers of a
magistrate of the first class on the Assistant to the Resident in the Persian Gulf
and of a Sessions Judge on the Resident in respect of offences committed by
Native Indian subjects on any part of the coast line within the Persian Gulf and
the Gulf of Oman. Under this notification the Governor-General in Council
was placed in the position of a High Court in regard to orders and sentences
passed by the Resident.
(xlv). The case of Marwareed, the converted Muhammadan at Kerman. Question
of the authority of the Resident in the Persian Gulf to sentence him to im­
prisonment in the Bombay Jail, 1876.
347. The leading features of this case which was the cause of a somewhat
lengthy correspondence are as follows:—
In the spring of 1873 the Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel
Ross) reported to Her Majesty's Minister
Political A., June 1877, No. 109-71.
at Tehran (Mr. Thomson) that a British
Hindu merchant, named Moolchund, residing at Bandar Abbas in the Persian
Gulf, had complained that his partner, another British Indian trader, named
Marwareed, residing at Kerman, had turned Muhammadan with the intention
of defrauding him by appropriating a large
* Moolchund.
sum of money, being the value of goods
which had been entrusted to him* for sale by a British Hindu merchant at
Shikarpur.
348. Mr. Thomson brought the matter to the notice of the Persian Govern­
ment, on which the Governor of Kerman was ordered to investigate and settle
the claims againt Marwareed,f who, how­
f He waa by this time known as " Ali Akbar."
ever, by bribing the local Persian officials,
and exciting the sympathies of his new co-religionists, managed to evade the
attempts made to bring him to justice.
349. Fresh applications were made by the injured parties to Mr. Thomson,
renewed representations were made by him to the Persian Government, further
instructions were sent to the Governor of Kerman, but no satisfactory result was
obtained.
350. A mixed meeting of Muhammadan and Hindu merchants was subse­
quently held at Kerman, when a decision signed by Muhairimadans only was
given to the effect that Marwareed was liable for a small portion of the claim
against him.
About the month of August 1875 one of Moolchund’sJ partners presented
himself in person before Mr. 1 homson,
t The man defrauded by Marwareed.
and begged that he would cause the
defaulter to be sent to Bandar Abbas in view to the accounts of the firm being
personally examined and settled. On this Mr. Thomson again addressed the