On November 9th, 1889, the Dundee Courier And Argus ran a very strange story indeed – one we found had not only a bizarre set of circumstances, but also an odd ending:
“A mill foreman was fined in the Dundee Police Court the other day for assaulting a youthful worker. Time was when assaults on workers were more common than they are now. The millworkers of India are liable to assault from causes not recognised by either mill foreman or fellow-worker in this country. An inquest has been held at Bombay on the body of Ramjee Dajee, a mill labourer who died somewhat suddenly. One of the witnesses, Deo Govind, stated that deceased was possessed of a devil. He seized Ramjee by the hair of head, and asked the devil who he was. As the spirit did not reply, though asked twice, witness began to flog deceased violently with a rattau. He gave Ramjee many blows on the back and let go his hair, and the possessed one then fell back and died immediately. The medical evidence showed that the cause of death was haemorrhage from rupture of the spleen. Accordingly, the jury found Ramjee died of haemorrhage by rupture of the spleen, but that under what circumstances it was ruptured there was no evidence to show. The verdict looks as if the jury did not want to be hard upon a religious devotee who might have caused death to a fellow worker in trying to rid him of the devil. In Dundee he would have probably been “fined 7s 6d or three days,” or dismissed with an admonition.”
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