The Day of the Scorpion

by Paul Scott

  Kumar answered before Rowan had a chance to speak.

  ‘It was a question of extracting everything possible from the situation while it lasted.’

  ‘The situation?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But what situation?’

  ‘The situation of our being face to face, with everything finally in his favour.’

  ‘Finally? You are suggesting he anticipated this face-to-face situation?’

  ‘Yes. That almost goes without saying.’

  ‘Are you claiming – are you claiming that he was a rival for the friendly attention of Miss Manners and had therefore looked forward to a situation which would place you – at disadvantage? Is this what you allege? You claim that an aspect to be considered is that of jealousy?’

  Kumar hesitated. ‘That would be an over-simplification. And there’d then be the question, jealousy of what kind, and jealousy of whom?’

  ‘I cannot follow these arguments. Let us leave the matter of what you allege he talked about and consider the questions you allege he occasionally put in. Perhaps those will be easier to understand. Can you remember any of those questions?’

  ‘Broadly.’

  ‘Then say what you remember broadly.’

  ‘They were such questions as: Those fellows up there admire you a lot, don’t they? They’d do anything you say. Who marked your face? Why didn’t you go to The Sanctuary tonight? Who’s Colin? She wasn’t a virgin, was she, and you were the first to ram her, weren’t you?’

  ‘Did you reply to any of those questions?’

  ‘I told him if he wanted answers he first had to tell me why I’d been brought in.’

  ‘And these questions were interpolated, you are saying, into his talk on other matters?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘For instance he would be talking about the future of the British in India and would suddenly say, Who is Colin?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And always you replied as you have described?’

  ‘Not always. Some of the questions I treated as rhetorical.’

  ‘But you said, more than once, that you would only answer questions if he told you why you were in custody?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Gradually, however, you suggest, you got a clear impression that you and the others upstairs were suspected of criminal assault on a lady?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And did you at the same time suspect that this lady was Miss Manners?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you not ask?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You were a close friend of Miss Manners. You knew the police had been looking for her, you knew of the troubles in the district, you guessed a woman had been assaulted and realized that this woman might be your friend Miss Manners, but you did not say, “Has something happened to Miss Manners?”’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I realized that’s what he was waiting for me to do. I think it was a basic aspect of the situation.’

  ‘Let us forget what you call the situation.’

  ‘It’s impossible for me to forget the situation. It had a very special intensity.’

  Rowan spoke, taking advantage of Gopal’s hesitation.

  ‘I think we should do better to leave any inner significance the situation may have had for both DSP and the prisoner and concentrate on the form and order of the interrogation. If there was an inner significance it might even become clear to us what it was if we confine ourselves rigorously to the outer forms.’

  ‘It is what I have been trying to do,’ Gopal said. He rustled his papers; eventually spoke again to Kumar.

  ‘There came a point when according to your previous testimony DSP said that he was making inquiries about an Englishwoman who was missing, and added “You know which one", and followed this with what you call an obscene remark. What was that remark?’

  ‘I prefer not to say.’

  ‘What did you understand from it?’

  ‘That he was definitely referring to Miss Manners and to the fact that she’d been assaulted by more than one man, all Indians.’

  ‘And it was at this point that you said you hadn’t seen Miss Manners since the time you visited the temple?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘In that case I’m afraid I must press you to repeat the obscene remark. I must press you because without it your refutation of the official statement – that you yourself were the first to mention Miss Manners – is incomplete.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I still prefer not to say.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘It was slanderous as well as obscene.’

  Rowan said, ‘I think we needn’t press this—’

  ‘Oh, but I think we must,’ Gopal said. ‘I do not understand what detenu is getting at when he talks of a situation, but there is here a situation of which we are getting a picture and it is important that the picture should be as complete in every detail as possible. The situation I speak of is one in which the detenu, under suspicion of rape, is kept standing naked for a very long time by the senior police officer of the district, who sits on his desk drinking whisky and conducting an interrogation with, if detenu is to be believed, a total disregard for detenu’s dignity as a human being, and asking questions in a manner calculated to insult, outrage, and to provoke to make comments which are then recorded as incriminating evidence of detenu’s knowledge of events he could not have known about if he was innocent only. And the picture of this situation is not easy to believe. It is necessary that detenu should be examined closely on it because it arises only out of what he has been saying. He cannot suddenly stop saying because it suits him.’

  Again she sought the reassurance of the pleats and buttons of her blouse. Gopal was making statements which on the record would convey an impression of doubting Kumar, of disbelieving that a police officer would act as Kumar had said. But Gopal did not want to doubt or disbelieve. Underneath that apolitical, civil service, collaborative exterior pumped the old Anti-British fears, prejudices and superstitions. It came to her that Gopal disliked Kumar for the type of Indian Kumar was – which in every important way from Gopal’s point of view was not an Indian way at all. It was not without pleasure that he assumed the hectoring tone, emerged suddenly, almost unexpectedly, as animated by a passion the record would show as one for a clinical sense of justice, the opposite of the real animus – a fastidious dislike of the white usurper on whose bandwagon he had a seat. Below her, yet another situation was in process. It fascinated, disturbed her, to have, suddenly, an insight into it. ‘So I must press detenu,’ Gopal was saying. It was the white man in Kumar he enjoyed attacking. But the objective was the revelation of the full outrage and unjust pressure Kumar the Indian had suffered.

  ‘I am sorry,’ Kumar said.

  Gopal made an impatient gesture. How thin his fingers were, disapproving, permissive. They inspired her with dislike and pity: the twin responses to the odd combination of triumph and defeat the gesture implied.

  Rowan took over.

  ‘When – as you suggest – you understood from whatever it was you imply District Superintendent conveyed to you – that Miss Manners had been criminally assaulted and that you and the other men were under suspicion for that, you presumably made the statement as it appears in DSP’s report. “I have not seen Miss Manners since the night we visited the temple.”’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So the report is correct in that detail?’

  ‘In that detail, yes.’

  ‘And you are not inclined to dispute that this was at 22.45 hours?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So a second detail of the report is correct.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you showed signs of distress, at this point, in that you were shivering, which makes the report accurate on three counts. I imagine, too, that you would not dispute the statement the report goes on to make that from that moment you reverted to the invariable reply to any question: “I have not
hing to say.”’

  ‘I would not dispute that.’

  ‘How long did your interrogation continue? How long were you in fact making this statement that you had nothing further to say?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I lost track of things like time.’

  ‘As long as an hour, two hours?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘Longer?’

  ‘It could have been.’

  ‘You were alone with the examining officer for two hours or more?’

  ‘No. Other people came in after a bit.’

  ‘The two constables?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Anyone else?’

  ‘One certainly. There may have been others.’

  ‘Can’t you remember?’

  ‘I thought so. It seemed like it.’

  ‘Are you saying you were confused? A bit giddy perhaps? And cold? Standing naked a long time in a cooled room?’

  ‘I wasn’t standing all the time.’

  ‘You were allowed to sit?’

  ‘No.’

  Gopal re-entered the arena. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘You were not standing all the time but also you were not sitting. What were you doing? Lying down?’

  ‘I was bent over a trestle.’

  ‘Bent over a trestle?’

  ‘Tied to it.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘For the persuasive phase of the interrogation.’

  A pause.

  Gopal said, ‘Are you stating that you were physically ill-treated?’

  ‘A cane was used.’

  A rustle of paper. Captain Rowan’s voice:

  ‘Among the documents there is a copy of a report by a magistrate, Mr Iyenagar, who interviewed you at police headquarters on August 16th at the direction of the civil authorities. Do you recall that interview?’

  ‘There were many interviews.’

  ‘The one on August 16th was ordered by the civil authorities to inquire into rumours circulating in the bazaar of whipping and defilement of the prisoners held under suspicion of rape. Do you recall that now?’

  ‘Yes, I recall it.’

  ‘The report reads: Iyenagar: Have you any complaints to make about your treatment while in custody? Kumar: No. Iyenagar: If it were suggested that you had been subjected to physical violence of any kind, would there be any truth in that? Kumar: I have nothing to add to my first answer. Iyenagar: If it were suggested that you had been forced to eat any food which your religion made distasteful to you, would there be any truth in that suggestion? Kumar: I have no religious prejudices about food. Iyenagar: You understand that you have the opportunity here of making a complaint, if one is justified, which you need not fear making? Kumar: I have nothing more to say. Iyenagar: You have no complaint about your treatment from the moment of your arrest until now? Kumar: I have no complaint.’

  Rowan looked up from his reading.

  ‘Is that an accurate record of your interview with the magistrate?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It is an accurate record, but you weren’t telling the truth?’

  ‘I was telling the truth.’

  ‘You have just alleged that you were tied to a trestle and beaten with a cane.’

  ‘Yes. I was.’

  ‘Then why did you deny it when the magistrate asked you?’

  ‘He asked if I had any complaint. I said I hadn’t. I spoke the truth.’

  ‘You had no complaint about being caned?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why?’

  No answer.

  Gopal said, ‘Are you suggesting you were afraid of the consequences of complaining?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What then?’

  ‘It’s difficult to explain now.’

  ‘You did not complain, for reasons that now strike you as questionable?’ Rowan asked.

  ‘Not questionable.’

  ‘What then?’

  No answer.

  ‘You are not on oath. The people you now complain about are not here to answer your accusations. Are you taking advantage of that?’

  ‘No, and I am not complaining.’

  Rowan’s voice took on an edge. ‘I see. You’re merely stating facts. A bit late in the day, isn’t it?’

  ‘I don’t know about late in the day—’

  ‘Facts which you failed to state at the time for a reason you now find it difficult to give us.’

  No answer.

  ‘You say you were caned. How many times were you hit with this cane?’

  ‘I don’t know.

  ‘Six times? Twelve times?’

  No answer.

  ‘More than twelve times?’

  ‘I didn’t count.’

  ‘On what part of the body were you hit?’

  ‘On the usual place for someone bent over.’

  ‘The buttocks.’

  ‘Yes.’

  A rustle of paper.

  ‘On your arrival in Kandipat you underwent the routine physical check. The documents are here. The examining doctor found you physically Al. Judging by this document it seems no marks were found that would have pointed to your having received a number of strokes with a cane on your buttocks. There is a note about traces of bruising on your face. The examination was made sixteen days after your arrest and first interrogation. The caning perhaps was not so severe as to cut the skin? Sixteen days is not a long time. Wouldn’t you say that if your skin had been cut the marks would still have been visible?’

  ‘They were visible.’

  ‘The doctor saw them?’

  ‘I don’t know.

  ‘You must answer more fully than that.’

  ‘If he saw them he made no comment.’

  ‘Nor any record. It is usual before the examination for a prisoner to be bathed. Were you so bathed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I understand such bathing is conducted under the eye of a prison officer. Was it so conducted?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did the prison officer comment on any marks there may have been on your buttocks?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘The marks were invisible to him too?’

  ‘Indians of the lower class keep a pair of drawers on while bathing. I suppose it’s because they’re used to bathing in public. That’s what happened when I was told to take a bath that day. I was told to keep my drawers on.’

  Gopal said, ‘It’s a point I was about to make, Captain Rowan. And in the case of the physical examination it is doubtful that the doctor – who I see from the medical report was an Indian – would have asked for the drawers to be removed for longer than was necessary to examine the pubic region. Was that the case, Kumar?’

  ‘There was also an examination of the anal passage.’

  A pause.

  Rowan said, ‘What you’re suggesting then is that the doctor was either incompetent and failed to see what was under his nose, or saw the marks and ignored them in his report.’

  ‘I’m not making a suggestion.’

  ‘Are these marks you say you had still visible to any degree?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You were not hit severely enough for the marks to be permanent.’

  ‘I was hit severely.’

  ‘To the point where blood was drawn?’

  ‘I think it was when they started to draw blood that they covered me with a wet cloth. Then they carried on.’

  A pause.

  Gopal said, ‘Who were “they”?’

  ‘I couldn’t see. It must have been the constables. They tied me to the trestle anyway. They started when Merrick gave the order and stopped when he said so. When they stopped Merrick talked to me. When he stopped talking he gave the order and they started again. It went on like that.’

  Gopal said, ‘Until you lost consciousness?’

  ‘I didn’t lose consciousness.’

  Rowan said, ‘But you have no idea how many times you were hit?’

  ‘It�
��s difficult to breathe in that position. It’s all you think of in the end.’

  Rowan continued: ‘You allege that when the investigating officer told the constables to stop he talked to you. You mean he questioned you?’

  ‘It was more like talking.’

  ‘What was he talking about this time?’ Gopal asked acidly. ‘Not surely about the history of the British in India?’

  ‘He was talking to encourage me.’

  ‘Encourage you? To confess?’

  ‘That was part of it. Perhaps not the most important.’

  ‘But important enough for us to concentrate on,’ Gopal said. ‘What did he say to encourage a confession?’

  ‘He said Miss Manners had named me as one of the men, that she said she’d been stopped by me outside the Bibighar and attacked while I held her in conversation, then that she’d been dragged into the gardens and raped, first by me and then by my friends. He said he didn’t believe her. He suggested I should tell him the real truth. He told me he knew the truth but wanted to hear it from me first.’ A pause. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve got confused. He said that before he had me tied to the trestle. But after they tied me to the trestle he said it again, only this time he left out the bit about wanting to hear the truth from me. He said he’d tell me what he knew to be the truth and all I had to do to stop being beaten was confirm it.’

  ‘And what do you allege he told you?’

  ‘He said she’d obviously asked us to meet her, egged us on, that then we’d given her more than she’d quite bargained for, and that she was now trying to have us punished for something we’d only been technically guilty of.’ A pause. ‘He made it sound very plausible. He left me to think about it. He seemed to be away for quite a long time. When he came back he had one of the other men with him. He told me one of my friends had come down to hear me confess. I don’t know which of the men it was. I heard this man trying to tell me he knew nothing and had said nothing. They started hitting me again.’ A pause. ‘After that I think Merrick sent everyone out. I think we were alone. He spoke and acted even more obscenely.’

  Rowan said, ‘The word obscene is open to different interpretations. Your allegation of obscenity – the second you have made – is against an officer of the Indian Police and is damaging to the reputation of that officer. You must give examples of obscenity so that anyone reading the record of this examination may form his own conclusion whether the word is justified in the context of the allegation.’