Court jails seaman for ‘gunjah’ smuggling
ON the morning of Wednesday, May 1, 1912, a seaman from the indentured labourer ship Sutlej appeared before the Acting Chief Police Magistrate H. HennikerHeaton.
He was charged for unlawfully bringing into the Colony of Fiji a quantity of “gunjah” (a species of Indian hemp).
The defendant, Kallu, pleaded guilty to the charge, and added that he was ignorant of the law prohibiting such importation.
Apparently it wasn’t the first case. The local police had caught several cases of the drug on board the “coolie ships which came from India”.
The Acting-Inspector General of Constabulary, who was conducting the case for the police, stated that taking into consideration the nature of the drug, the quantity smuggled was a large one.
The steamer Sutlej was alongside the wharf, and in consequence of a warning the Collector of Customs, Mr Brabant, had stationed an extra officer on duty there; this officer had become suspicious of Kallu’s behavior and followed him as far as Mr A. Brodziak’s verandah, and caught him red-handed passing over the packet of gunjah produced to another Indian national.
“His worship imposed a fine, with an alternative of two months’ imprisonment,” reported The Fiji Times.
The defendant, however, asked that he be allowed until the Sutlej returned to port to pay his fine .
His worship asked the police if they could watch the defendant during that time, but as it was then intimated to him that it would be inconvenient and difficult, he ordered that Kallu be detained until the return of his ship, and then to be allowed to pay the fine. Immediately following the case, an Indian named Ramsahai was charged with being in unlawful possession of gunjah. He pleaded not guilty.
“His worship found the defendant guilty, and ordered him to pay a fine or to go to prison for two months.”
In reply to a question from the Acting-Inspector General of Constabulary his worship ordered the forfeiture of the gunjah.