Not a precancel. India didn't use precancels. It's probably a theft-prevention measure: draw the lines across the stamp and onto the envelope, before giving it to the servants to post. That prevents the servants (or the post office staff) from stealing the stamps. This sort of thing was quite common during the 1800s.
Here is an extreme example of the same sort of thing from Jammu & Kashmir:
Posted 07/30/2011 07:30 am
