:
COPY.
302
Captain Superintendent of Police:
in No.2 Station Occurrence Book.
I attach a copy of the entry
About 3 a.m. on January 13th
1918 L.$.8 Johnston was on duty in Queen's Road East. A ricksha coolie saw him walking in the road going east. A few minutes afterwards the ricksha coolie heard the sound of a shot. He did not see tho fired the shot. This shot was also heard by Indian Sergeant 332 Tara Singh who was on duty about 100 yards away. Darkness and curve of the road prevented him seeing what had happened. He ran in the direction of the sound and found L.8.8 Johnston lying on his back in the middle of Queen's Road East. He was dead. There was a bullet wound behind the right ear. The deceased was in uniform; he had a stick in his right hand; his automatic pistol, fully loaded, was in its holster on his balt. He had not had time to draw it. The body was removed to No.2 Station.
Investigations at first threw suspicion on a sapper (British) in the R.E. The evidence was purely circumstantial. This sapper was charged on the 15th January 1918 before the Magistrate with the murder. He was remanded pending further enquiries. On January 22nd 1918, Police traced a gang of armed robbers to 6 Cresson Street. This house is within 100 yards of the spot where L.S.8 John- -ston was murdered. A fight between Police and these robbers took place in and in the neighbourhood of this house. Two European, one Indian and one Chinese Police officers wers shot dead; three robbers were shot.
There had been no direct witnesses of the murder of L.S.8 Johnaton. This occurrence created a very strong probability that L.S.8Johnston was murdered by this gang of robbers. The charge of murder against the British sapper was withdrawn by Police on
January