News of a sensational murder of a European spread through the town [Palghat] early on Tuesday morning. It would appear that one Charles Alexander, formerly employed as a Guard in the South Indian Railway Company and now according to a statement he had made before Sub-Collector, Mr. Percy Macqueen, I.C.S., a fireman on board a Casting Steamer arrived in Palghat on Monday morning by mail train. He represented to the Sub Collector in the noon that he had missed his steamer at Madras and was now on his way to join the vessel at the Mangalore Port. The story on the face of it seemed improbable, but having been stranded penniless, the Sub-Collector gave him under the Vagrant Act some money for his food and arranged for his ticket to Mangalore by the train leaving Palghat that night. Later in the day, Mr. Alexander was seen begging for money from several individuals in the town and towards the evening he was seen in Tavern No. 4 in Sultanpet having a drinking bout. There an altercation is said to have occurred between him and the Police Head Constable Achuta Panikkar of the Kasba Police Station with the result that the said Head Constable is alleged to have stabbed the European with a clasp knife in the left chest near the heart. The victim reeled and fell down. Death was instantaneous. The head constable has been apprehended, and is in custody.
On Tuesday morning Sub-Magistrate Mr. Gangadara Iyer held an inquest touching the above murder and recorded statements from several people in the vicinity. While appealing to the generosity of the public for funds Alexander was representing himself as one having recently returned from Basra after being invalided for active service. He had also on his coat pocket a wallet, containing his passport and army papers minus his photo. The remains of the deceased were interred in the local English cemetery.
