10. Murder of sepoys
A favourite class of victims were sepoys proceeding to their homes on furlough and carrying their small savings; such men would not be quickly missed, as their relatives would think they had not started, and the regimental authorities would ascribe their failure to return to desertion. So many of these disappeared that a special Army Order was issued warning them not to travel alone, and arranging for the transmission of their money through the Government treasuries.[21] In this order it is stated that the Thugs were accustomed first to stupefy their victim by surreptitiously administering the common narcotic dhatūra, still a familiar method of highway robbery.