The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 27
27 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN When the report came up and the Tribunal again asked me what I had to say, I submitted that the health of the accused had improved somewhat while he had been away on bail, and now since he had come back into custody, he had been losing weight. That was all we could gather with certainty from the report. We knew he had been suffering from mastoid and there was no evidence that he had been cured of it - there had been no operation. As matters stood, I, on behalf of the Crown, was not prepared to take the responsibility of keeping him in further custody. That left the Tribunal no choice but to admit him to bail. That, incidentally, happened to be my last day in the case. Sir Fazle Hussain, who was a member of the Governor General's Executive Council, in charge of the Department of Education, Health and Lands, had asked for four months' leave and, no doubt on his advice, the Viceroy had written to me to ask whether I would care to officiate for him during that period. I was then only 39 years of age and considered that this was both a great opportunity for service and a challenge and also a great compliment, and I accepted the offer. I was leaving that evening, and was deeply moved when I received a message from this young fellow from jail, that if by that evening he was released on bail he would come to the railway station to see me off. At the end of the proceedings on that day, an incident occurred, which was somewhat unusual and which gratified me. The President of the Tribunal made the usual complimentary reference to my not being available any further in the case, and Dr. Kitchlew also made complimentary reference, and then two of the accused stood up in the dock and they wanted to say something. I thought they wanted to seize this opportunity to pitch into me now that I was going to be in the Government of India and they knew that whatever they said would get the widest publicity. But they associated themselves with what had been said by the President of the Tribunal and by their counsel and added that they were no judges of the legal ability of the Crown Counsel, but wanted to put on record that he had conducted the case on behalf of the Crown like a gentleman. In the annals of criminal jurisprudence, it must be rather unusual, that people whom I was making an honest effort to get put behind prison bars for terms of years should have formed that estimate