The Divine Stranglers: A Story of Thugs and Thuggee Sleeman

Story in Brief Set in turbulent Central India in the early 19th century, the story revolves around an Englishman in the employ of the East India Company, his French wife from a noble Émigré family, businessmen. Policemen and a sect of Divine Murderers. The Englishman sets out to exterminate the sect, using the first ever modern scientific methods of Criminal Investigation and detection. This results in the arrest of 3,689 killers, 466 of whom are hanged and 2497 imprisoned for life. Based on Historical facts, the story takes you through early 19th century customs and practices in England, France and India. Strangulations, Famine, Epidemics, Myths, Folklore , Superstitions gel together in the story to unfold the mystique of India. The Thug Menace More than a hundred Thug gangs prowled India’s highways and annually killed about 40,000 travellers in the early 19th century. The Thugs were held together by a perversion of religion that made killing a part of worship. The gangs were knit together by a strange and bizarre regimen of life, that destroyed their victims with a combination of guile and cruelty almost unparalleled in the history of crime anywhere in the world. The Thugs had been plying their trade undetected for nearly 500 years. Major General Sir William Henry Sleeman was a man of zeal and spirit far above the ordinary and his extraordinary tenacity of purpose was in the final analysis the reason why Thuggee could be eliminated. The legal procedures of the time also helped a lot as they permitted quick and effective trials and deterrent punishment to thugs K.F.Rustomji DG BSF (One of independent India's most respectable policeman) – In the centenary issue of the Indian Police Journal –Thugs, Pindaris and Dacoits