This was a curious opening for
a witness for the defence, and dead silence fell on the Court while
Ram Harak proceeded to swear that it was he, and not Debendra Babu,
who had been intimate with the deceased, and that she had poisoned
herself to avoid excommunication.
"Did she tell you so herself?" asked the judge sharply.
"No, your highness; I learnt this only yesterday from Maina Bibi,
Karim's own sister; Piyari Bibi, Sadhu's daughter; and Nasiban Bibi,
his sister-in-law, who all lived with the deceased."
The Government Pleader at once objected to this statement being
recorded, as it was hearsay. Nalini, however, assured the judge
that the eye-witnesses were in attendance, and called them, one
by one, to give evidence. Passing strange was their story. On the
evening of Siraji's death they found her writhing in agony on the
floor and, on being questioned, she gasped out that she could bear
her kinsfolks' tyranny no longer. They had just told her that she
was to be excommunicated for intriguing with an infidel. So she had
got some yellow arsenic from the domes (low-caste leather-dressers)
and swallowed several tolas weight of the poison in milk. The other
women were thunderstruck. They sat down beside her and mingled their
lamentations until Siraji's sufferings ended for ever.
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