Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s17.6

c27.s17.6

From the Police let us turn to the punishment inflicted on thieves detected or arrested by them. Thieves often suffered capital punishment towards the close of the Peshwa period. Capital punishment for the same offence was by no means an exception under the Mughal days. Manucci tells us that Aurangzib decapitated no less than 500 thieves in order to "terrorise the perverse." 9 And again "Once when I was living in Lahor, fifteen thieves of this tribe were caught. They had robbed a house at midnight; they were seized and sentenced to death. When the officers of justice were taking them to be executed in front of that very house, they passed in front of my door." 10