Thuggery (Teorrists) in India:Their centuries of unique depredation rapidly ended between 1828 and 1837, when the British East India Company appointed Sir William Henry Sleeman to eradicate them. Working with village and territorial police, Sleeman's force rounded up thousands of suspected thugs and their relatives. More than 400 were hanged, others slain on the road. Some 3,000 were jailed. Heavy-handed? Perhaps. But the reign of the thugs on India's byways effectively was squelched.