[* See note to Chapter VI., Vol.  II., on the capture of Maheput Sing.  A reward of one thousand rupees has since been offered for Jugurnath’s arrest.  See in Chapter IV., Vol.  II:, an account of his desertion of his master, Captain Paton.  He is still at large, and plundering.  December 4th, 1851.]

8.  Moorut Sing, of Kiteya, which has eleven small villages depending upon it, all occupied by Rajpoot robbers.  Nowgowa, in Mohlara, in Rodowlee, on the left bank of the Goomtee river, twenty miles below Lucknow, has, in the same manner, twelve villages depending upon it, all occupied by Rajpoots, who rob, or shelter robbers, when pursued from the east.  On the opposite bank is the village of Kholee, in the Hydergurh purgunna, held by Surfraz Chowdheree, and occupied by Brahmans and Musulmans, who shelter robbers in the same way.  When they are pressed in Nowgowa they take shelter in Kholee, and when pressed in Kholee they take shelter in Nowgowa.  All the robbers above named find shelter in these villages when pursued, and share their plunder with the inhabitants.

8.  Bhooree Khan.  The great-grandfather of Bhooree Khan, Rostam Khan. was the leader of a large gang of Musulman freebooters.  The estate of Deogon, containing thirty-seven villages, belonged to a family of Bys Rajpoots.  Rostam Khan and his gang seized upon them all, and turned out the Rajpoot proprietors, and by force made three of them Musulmans, Kanhur, Bhooree, Geesee; and all their descendants are of the same creed.

Imam Buksh, the father of Bhoree Khan, built a fort in Deogon, which the family still held.  In 1829, Rajah Dursun Sing took the mortgage of the estate for twenty-eight thousand one hundred and ten rupees, to enable Imam Buksh to liquidate a balance of revenue due to Government.  When the time of payment came, in 1832, Imam Buksh could pay nothing; and he transferred the estate to Dursun Sing, on a deed of sale or bynama.  He continued to manage the estate for Dursun Sing in farm; but, falling in balance, he was put into confinement, where he remained till he died, three years after, in the year 1842.  Bhooree Khan was then a boy, but he continued to receive the usual perquisites from the estate while Dursan Sing held it.  In the year 1846, the governor of the district, Wajid Allee Khan, took the estate from Dursun Sing’s family, and made it over to Bhooree Khan for a present of five thousand rupees.  He ceased to pay the Government demand, collected a gang, and became a leader of banditti.  He plundered all the people around, and all travellers on the road, seized and confined all who seemed likely to be able to pay ransom, and tortured and maimed them till they did pay; and those who could not or would not pay, he put to cruel deaths.  The thirty-six villages on his estate became deserted by all save his followers, and those whom he could make subservient to his purposes, as robbers and murderers.