Hazrat Ahmad — Page 37
HADHRAT AHMAD 37 him and he was removed from service. The newspaper which printed his letter and supported it also suffered its share of the punishment. The vicissitudes that afflicted the Sultan's Empire are a matter of common knowledge. . Ahmad and Dr. Henry Martin Clarke. On 1st August the same year, a Christian Missionary, Dr. . Henry Martin Clarke, brought in the Court of Mr. A. E. Martineu,. District Magistrate of Amritsar, a charge of abetment of murder against the Promised Messiah. The complainant stated that the. Promised Messiah had sent one Abdul Hamid to murder him. The. Magistrate issued a warrant for the arrest of the accused, but then discovered that the offense was alleged to have been committed in another district and that he had, therefore, no jurisdiction to issue the warrant. . The case was accordingly transferred to the Courts of the. District Magistrate of Gurdaspur. This office was then held by. Captain M. W. Douglas. Before him also Abdul Hamid stated that he had been sent by the Promised Messiah to murder Dr. Clarke, by crushing him under a heavy stone. Discrepancies between the story now told by him and that told by him to District Magistrate of Amritsar made Captain Douglas suspicious and he began a thorough and sifting enquiry and the case after four hearings was disposed of within the short space of four weeks. Although the complainant and his party were Christians, Captain Douglas gave his impartial verdict in favor of the Promised Messiah, and not only discharged him honorably, but also gave him leave to prosecute the missionaries who had brought the false charge against him. The Promised Messiah, however, forgave them and refrained from proceeding against them. In his order the District Magistrate wrote: 'When I heard his story it appeared to me to be absurd because, first, there were discrepancies between his statement made before me and that made by him before the District. Magistrate of Amritsar, and the conduct and bearing of this man were also suspicious. Secondly, another thing which struck me in the statement was that the longer he stayed with the employees of the mission, the more his statement grew in elaboration and length. For example, he made one statement on