Indian Antiquary Vol 53

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 124

118
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JUNE, 1924
the services of a Karkun on Rs. 10. Government assumed perhaps too readily that Umaji had turned over a new leaf and would now settle down as one of their agents for the preven. tion and detection of crime. But he was too deeply imbued with the spirit of adven turous marauding, and had never relinquished the hope of securing an independent position. Therefore, whilo completely satisfied as to the good faith of the Bombay Govern. ment towards himself, he determined, under a cloak of pretended zeal in their interests, to resort secretly to his former unlawful practices. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
In April 1829, therefore, we find him arresting certain Kaikâdis who had looted a house at Shikrapur and confining them in his own village, instead of handing them over to the magistrate at Poona. During their confinement he extorted Rs. 400 from them, and then persuaded them to remain in his employ, with promises of further opportunities for loot. In June he actually sent these men to loot the houses of two Brahmans at a village south of Sakurdi, and when ordered by the authorities to seize the culprits, he forced the Brahman plaintiffs by threats to give him a written receipt for all their losses, exonerating both him. self and the villagers of Sakurdi from blame. In the following month a Gosavi was robbed of Rs. 3,000 near Lonad by a body of fifteen Hetkaris and twenty Ramosis, acting under his orders: in July and August his Kaikâdis were out again, plundering houses at Moreshwar and Belsur. In all these cases the major share of the loot was handed to Umaji. The Bombay Government, however, still believed him to be acting honestly, for towards the end of August he was summoned to Poona by the Collector, Captain Robertson, and informed that his own pay, and the pay of his party, had been increased. His illicit gains continued unchecked. In October he received Rs. 2,000 out of the amount stolen from a banker of Kalyan ; in November he sent a body of Hetkaris and Ramosis to a spot near Chauk on the Panwel road, where they looted the property of a wealthy Poona shroff. The gang even. tually handed Rs. 6,000 to Umaji at Sakurdi. Another banker was robbed in January 1830, near the Salpi ghat : several highway robberies took place near Jejuri and Phaltan in April : in May the house of the Kulkarni of Ekatpur was attacked on the very day that his daughter's marriage was taking place; and as reports of Umaji's personal complicity were rife, he decided to pacify the Collector by sending a couple of men, whom he picked up, to stand their trial at Poona for the robbery. Two other dacoities took place in May at Nai. gaon and Wadgaon, in the latter of which a Brahman householder was killed : in June Um Aji's Kaikâdis robbed the house of the Kulkarni of Pargaon, and in August they plun. dered two houses near Baramati : at the end of the latter month Umaji employed some of his Purandhar Ramosis to break into the house of the Deshpande of Alandi near Kikvi: September witnessed several dacoities in Phaltan.
At this juncture Um Aji's caroor of crime suffered a temporary check. Complaints has been made against him to the authorities at Poona by various people, among them being & Ramosi, whom Umaji in revenge maltreated in an outrageous manner. This behaviour was responsible for a Government order removing Umáji from his post in the Purandhar District police and obliging him to reside' permanently in Poona. He was allowed to retain his pay, however, and the Patels of five villages in Purandhar stood surety for his not absconding from the Deccan capital. Accordingly, in November 1830, Umaji came to Poona with his personal belongings and received an advance of Rs. 200 towards the cost of building himself a permanent residence in the city. Government and the coun. tryside breathed more freely, in the hope that he would now settle down as a peaceful urban householder. But they forgot the call of the wild." Five weeks later, having ascertained that Sir John Malcolm had loft Bombay on retirement from the office of Governor, Um aje