My Mother — Page 124
124 involved, there will be a judicial determination of the whole mat- ter. Let us wait for that. ’ ‘I am grateful for your sympathy and understanding. Situated as we are, our only resource is prayer. We shall have recourse to it. ’ As the result of its so-called investigation, the police put up an utterly false and unfounded case against all male adult Ahmadis of Daska—eleven in number—charging them with rioting and causing hurt to participants in the Ahrar conference. was greatly shocked and deeply distressed. Everyone of the falsely charged accused had joined the Movement at her urging, and she felt she owed a special responsibility in respect of each of them. Her supplications on their behalf took on a particular poignancy. The case was tried by a non-Muslim Magistrate, who on a perusal of the police file suspected strongly that there was some- thing gravely wrong somewhere. His curiosity and interest were roused, and when the evidence was presented he scrutinised eve- rything minutely. As the case proceeded, everything began to fall into place like a Chinese puzzle. In the end he found that the pros- ecution case was an inextricable bundle of falsehoods. The First Information Report had been drawn up after the statements of the proposed prosecution’s witnesses had been taken down, so that everything seemed to fit in perfectly. Not one of the accused had approached within a mile of the place where the conference was held. In his order discharging the accused, he passed severe strictures against the police. Sir Herbert Emerson was outraged by the result of the case. He appointed a Deputy Inspector General of Police to make an enquiry how far the findings of the Magistrate were justified. Thus, in a sense, the Magistrate was put on his defence. In his statement,