[21]
It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to
connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of
robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those
limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from
their distant expeditions.
They [_scil._ the gangs] go out ostensibly in search of service, on
the termination of the rains of one season in October, and return
before the commencement of the next in June; but their vocation is
always well known to the police, and to all the people of their
neighbourhood, and very often to the magistrates themselves, who
could, if they would, secure them on their return with their booty;
but this would not secure their conviction unless the proprietors
could be discovered, which they scarcely ever could. Were the police
officers to seize them, they would be all finally acquitted and
released by the judges--the magistrate would get into disrepute with
his superiors, by the number of acquittals compared with convictions
exhibited in his monthly tables; and he would vent his spleen upon
the poor Thanadar, who would at the same time have incurred the
resentment of the robbers; and between both, he would have no
possible chance of escape.
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