The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 25
25 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN various portions of his story, I had been surprised that he remembered the details so well. I was quite convinced that no part of his story was manufactured by him or was taught him by the police. As a matter of fact, he was too intelligent a man to have lent himself to any such attempt or procedure. The trial proceeded very slowly indeed. My examination of the principal approver occupied seventeen days, and the cross-examination took nine months. That, I think, must be a record in trials, even of that kind. Part of the explanation is that the accused were up to every kind of trick. Some of them were graduates, some undergraduates, of universities; they were all educated people - and they not only knew the outlines of criminal procedure themselves - but had available defence counsel, who were paid for by government, but were chosen by them. Their principal counsel was Dr. Kitchlew from Amritsar. He was a barrister-at-law and as he himself was a very prominent worker in the Indian National Congress, he had the confidence of these people. He was assisted by some juniors. Part of the delay was caused by the fact that the accused would, on occasion, when they did not want the trial to proceed, refuse to come to court, and even if one of them refused to come to court on some paltry excuse or the other - he was not feeling very well, or he was suffering from a headache or something like that - under the normal procedure which applied, the trial could not proceed; the trial could only proceed in the presence of the accused and their counsel. When it was found that the obstruction was not in good faith, amending ordinances had to be passed by the Central Government to permit the trial to proceed when the absence of any accused was not due to some good cause. Nevertheless the trial was so prolonged that it became a mockery of justice. All the Tribunal could do was to see that the trial should be fair, and that no prejudice should be occasioned to the accused. In this it received every assistance from me. Before the commencement of the trial and after I had studied part of the evidence that was to be read at the trial and of the documentation in the case, I had advised that it would be wise on the part of the government not to proceed with the trial as planned, namely, as a conspiracy trial before a Special Tribunal, but that individual accused persons should be proceeded against in the ordinary courts of the country in respect of the specific offenses that they had committed, and that the conspiracy charges should be dropped.