106. On receipt, of applications for escorts for Government, opium, stamps, prisoners or lunatics from the following officials the escorts should be furnished :

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(5) Treasury Officers.

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107. Whenever possible notice will be given as follows, by the authority requiring an escort for prisoners or treasure :

(1) A requisition for Police escort shall be sent by the Superintendent of the Jail to the Superintendent of Police for the intended despatch of a party of convicts at least four clear days before the proposed date of transfer. The number and importance of the convicts is to be distinctly stated. When the convicts have been sentenced to imprisonment for offences connected with some definite political or religious matter, which has attracted general attention, and circumstances have rendered advisable their transfer to a jail in another district, an intimation should at the same time be sent by the Superintendent of the Jail to the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of the Police of the district.

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(3) Before the despatch of treasure by rail or road, the treasury officer will give two and seven days’ notice respectively.

108. Police escort will generally be provided from the Armed Police.

Police escorting opium, stamps and other valuables will, as a general rule, and Police escorting treasure will invariably be armed with muskets and side arms.

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113. All arrangements regarding conveyance, lights, padlocks, mazdoors, etc. for conveying prisoners or treasure will be made by the department which requisitions the escort.

114. Escorts should travel by rail whenever possible unless for some special reason it is expedient to travel by road.

115. Treasure and prisoners sent by rail shall ordinarily be conveyed in second class compartment, whatever the escort may be. In exceptional cases, when a prisoner is a man of respectibility and position, he may be permitted to travel with his escort in a higher class, provided he pays the extra cost for himself and his escort. See para 160 (a) of the Jail Manual.

116. In the case of prisoners or treasure being sent on the same day to places on the same line of rail it may be possible to send all the treasure or prisoners by one escort and to arrange that Superintendent of Police have escorts ready at railway station enroute to take over the treasure or prisoners consigned to their districts.

Where practicable, requisitioning officers should be asked to postpone the departure of an escort for a day or two in order to make it possible to send one escort instead of two or more.

117. Reserve inspectors should bring to the notice of Superintendents of Police sudden, irregular and inordinate demands and cases where escorts are unnecessarily delayed by the requisitioning authorities, and the Superintendent of Police should, when necessary, make a reference to the District Magistrate or the Deputy Inspector-General of Police.

Authorities requiring escorts for treasure should so arrange that escorts may not arrive at their destinations on Sundays or Gazetted holidays. Authorities requisitioning escorts for prisioners should be asked to observe this rule as far as possible.

118. Except when travelling on the railway or over short distances in headquarters stations, escorts should never travel by night

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Priority of requisition

120. The first call in the escort strength of a district will be for the daily lock-up guards required for the courts. Such guards must invariably be supplied as required.

The next in importance will be demands for the escort of treasure to or from the Currency Officer, Kanpur. Every effort must be made to provide such an escort on the date mentioned in the requisition.

When escorts may be refused

121. Though every effort should be made to meet sudden and urgent requisitions, if a demand is received without sufficient notice and men are not available, the reserve inspector may refuse to supply the escort; but he must, at the same time, specify when he will be able to give it and should book the demand accordingly. In all cases of refusal, the Superintendent of Police must be informed. Relief for escorts from other states, however, should never be refused and as far as possible such escorts should not be requisitioned during important religious festivals.

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131. Any requisition for an escort for treasure should state the amount and kind of treasure to be remitted and the route and destination of the escort.

The rules regarding packing and despatch of remittances in this chapter should be observed by branches of the State Bank but in the absence of special arrangements to the contrary made with the Agent, the treasury officer should arrange for the actual conveyance and escorting of the remittances.

Strength of escort

132. Police escorts conveying treasure by rail must be of the strength laid down in Appendix I.

Any escort accompanying treasure by rail must never be less than one head-constable and three constables, and when the treasure is loaded in more than one wagon, two men must be allowed to each wagon.

For road journeys and for the road portion of journeys by rail, the escort must be of the strength fixed in the Appendix for journeys by road. The Superintendent of Police may, however, exceed this strength if he considers it advisable to do so.

There are two tables, one for headquarters and the other for the district. Arrangements must be made for escorts to be reinforced for journeys to and from railway stations when necessary and the rules for journeys by road must be observed on these occasions.

In the hills, the strength of the guard for road will, as a rule, be fixed by the local police authorities though, when bus or any other conveyance available are used the ordinary plains scale should be followed.

Packing and transport

133. Article 121 of the Resource Manual prescribes that except in cases where the State Government may otherwise direct and, except for journeys by road, bags containing treasure should be packed in stout boxes each nailed down and bound with iron without gunny covering or ropes and the hoops should be riveted or nailed together where they cross, or in the patent remittance boxes referred to in Note 2 under that article. The State Government have decided that this method of packing treasure should invariably be followed in the case of all remittances except remittances within a district, i. e. remittances between sub-treasuries, treasuries, and a branch of the State Bank within a district. For the latter class of remittances padlocked boxes should have only a single lock. The pad-lock should be enclosed in sealed bag and the key should be entrusted to the potdar when one accompanies the remittance or to the escort commander in other cases enclosed in a sealed cover which he should not open except when absolutely necessary in the case of a break-down as explained in rule 135.

Bus or any other conveyance available shall be employed for journeys by road. In the hills where conveyance by motor vehicles is not practicable, ponies, mules or mazdoors should be employed.

134. The escort commander shall invariably see the boxes of notes and coins weighed or, in the case of pad-locked boxes containing bags of coin, shall count the number of bags. He shall sign the receipt at the foot of each copy of the invoice in which the weight and contents of each box must be entered; the blanks will be filled up in words and the escort commander should be required to write the number of the bags or boxes which he has received on the copy of the invoice to be detained by the treasury officer. The escort commander will be given one copy of the invoice.

135. The escort commander is responsible for not allowing the wagon, chests or boxes to be opened before arrival at destination save in the case of break-down when the treasure must be moved to another wagon, chest or box in his presence.

136. When the escort commander is relieved at the end of, or in the course of the journey, he will obtain a receipt for "wagon, chests, or boxes in good order said to contain coin (or notes) to the value of Rs. ."

137. When the remittance reaches the addressee, the latter will count the bags and weigh the boxes and give a receipt for " bags said to contain coins to the value of Rs. " or for "chests or boxes of marks and weights detailed in the invoice said to contain coins (or notes) to the value of Rs. ." If any chest or box be short weight, or show signs of having been tampered with, it should be opened in the presence of the chest commander; otherwise he should be allowed to return it at once.

When a potdar is sent in charge of treasured he will remain in charge while the treasure is being examined at destination and will take back the locks and, if convenient, the bags. If the escort is returning to the station of original despatch, the boxes or chests should be sent back under its charge; provided this will not unduly delay the escort, otherwise they should wait for the potdar.

When a treasury officer is sent with treasure by road, he will be allowed a seat on the bus or any other conveyance available containing the treasure.

Motor Lorry Services

138. Escort conveying small remittances of treasure or currency notes or other valuables to places more than five miles from their headquarters may travel by motor lorry with the approval of the treasury or currency officer concerned provided that –

(1) The payment of the motor lorry fares of the members of the escort has been sanctioned by the State Government.

(2) The Superintendent of Police shall issue general orders prescribing the position of the escort according to the nature of the lorry. The escort should sit together, ordinarily inside the lorry between the boxes and the other passengers and no person other than a member of the escort should be allowed to touch or to sit next to the box or boxes. The escort commander should carefully study the other passengers before starting and, if he notices anything suspicious, should take all necessary precautions. The Superintendent of Police should use his discretion in the matter of increasing the strength of the escort then necessary.

(3) No escort shall travel by motor lorry by night.

Instructions for Police Officers

189. The Treasury or currency officer will superintendent personally, or by substitute, the loading of the vans jointly with the Police Officer who is to travel in charge and will hand to him a paper containing the instructions reproduced below and as many blank receipts as there will be reliefs; for these documents he will take a receipt.

Paper of instructions to the Police Officer in charge of a remittance by rail.

(These instructions should be printed in Hindi and in English languages and a copy containing both the Hindi and English version must be handed by the treasury or currency officer at the despatching station to the Police Officer commanding any guard who will travel in charge of treasure, the copy being transferred by him to the officer commanding the relieving guard, if the guard is relieved at any point of the journey.

And a copy containing both the Hindi and English version must be handed by the treasury or currency officer at the despatching station to the Police Officer commanding any guard who will travel in charge of treasure, the copy being transferred by him to the officer commanding the relieving guard, if the guard is relieved at any point of journey.

A copy should also be supplied to the officers who are called upon to furnish guards for remittance by rail and they should be requested to impress upon the officer detailed upon this duty the necessity for strict and undeviating adherence to the instructions).

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) The Police Officer taking charge of a treasure-guard travelling by rail will not see the treasure packed at the treasury; but he will see the boxes weighed, and satisfy himself that each box is properly secured before it is transferred to the van, and that it is properly placed therein.

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Duties of escort

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147. The ordinary strength of an escort for Government stamps, opium, etc. by rail or by road, should be one head constable and two constables. They shall be armed as for ordinary treasure escorts. All mazdoor hire etc. will be paid by the treasury officer, or the authority requisitioning the escort, and constable should not be required to carry packages; the reserve inspector should invariably see that the proper arrangements are made for this. The rules laid down for the escort of treasure by rail and road should be followed so far as they are applicable, but generally during a journey by rail, any opium, stamps or other valuables should be taken in the same compartment with the escort.