Administrative System of the Marathas c25.s3.1

c25.s3.1

If mutilation is an old form of punishment, the practice of arresting and imprisoning the relatives of thieves is no less old. Kautilya says, "Sons or wives of murderers and thieves shall, if they are found not in concert, be acquitted; but they shall be seized if found to have been in concert."¹² It is very difficult if not absolutely impossible, for sons and wives of thieves, to exculpate themselves from the charge of connivance with their fathers and husbands, as the presumption is always against them. The only result of this rule was that in Maratha days the wives and sons of thieves and other offenders were arrested and imprisoned as a matter of course. Sometimes the Maratha officers arrested the relatives of absconding offenders in order to induce them to come out of their hiding and surrender themselves.