Is This A Picture Of A Child And His Kidnapper Or Are We Just Terribly Racist?

This image of a man escorting a little girl is going viral on Facebook, with the description text mentioning that she had been kidnapped. The Daily Bhaskar carried screenshots of the post today. 

In the description of the post shared by one Bhaskar Malik on Facebook, this man was accused of kidnapping the 6-year-old Riya Gupta who has been missing for over a week. 

The newspaper also shared information about another possible kidnapping.

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There may have been suspicion due to the skin colour of the boy, in comparison to the dark skinned man who was with him, according to the daily.

This image was accompanied with this description on facebook: This man is travelling with a child in Harsar Himachal Pradesh with a child that doesn’t appear to be his.Please share the message.

No efforts  to reach out the phone numbers mentioned to confirm the information yet have been reported.

Bengaluru techie’s father gets life imprisonment for killing daughter-in-law, granddaughter

A fast track court (FTC) has sentenced 54-year-old man and father of software engineer to undergo life imprisonment for killing his daughter-in-law and his three month old granddaughter on August 2, 2011.

The FTC-III judge Sadananda Kalal has found the accused in the case Nagarajan guilty on two counts for murdering his daughter-in-law Vijayalakshmi and granddaughter Neena besides for stealing and fleeing with her gold jewellery worth 4 lakh soon after killing both.

Nagarajan, a native of Tamil Nadu, was angry with Vijayalakshmi, who hailed from another community and married his son Karthik. He had several times picked up quarrel with her on the inter-cast marriage issue and also or not giving him part of her salary to meet the repayment of loans he had raised.

Nagarajan went to the house Vijayalakshmi o Halbavi road in Varthur, Bengaluru east on August 2, 2011 and picked up a quarrel with her. He picked up a lap top and hit her with it on her head. As Vijayalakshmi lay unconscious, he set her and the three month old granddaughter. Before fleeing from the house he decamped with the gold jewels found in the almirah in the house, a chargesheet filed by the then Varthu inspector Ashwathanarayana submitted before the court. The public prosecutor Vagish Hiremath appeared for the police in the case.

19-year-old killed in hit-and-run

A 19-year-old youth was crushed to death in a hit-and-run case near Kurali on Sunday night.

The victim was identified as Sumit, who was studying in a private college near Banur.

According to police sources, Sumit had gone to see his friend in a hospital in Kurali.

When he was on his way back at 8:30 pm, an unidentified truck rammed into his bike from the rear.

A local resident spotted Sumit lying in a pool of blood and rushed him to civil hospital, Kurali. Doctors declared Sumit brought dead.

The police have registered a case under Section 279 and 304 A of the IPC.

5 held for thefts in Dhanas

Five persons, including two juveniles, were arrested for committing thefts at EWS Colony in Dhanas on Monday. Police claim to have recovered stolen valuables, including 15 cell phones, 35 charges and other electronic items worth Rs 3 lakh, from their possession. Three persons out of those arrested were identified as Jagtar Singh, 20, Pankaj,18, and Deepak,19. The two juveniles have been sent to Juvenile Home, Sector 25.

SHO of PS 11, inspector Narinder Patial said that recovered valuables also include 40 DVD leads, five irons, eight plug leads, two ear phones, six speakers, one gold mangalsutra, a suitcase containing clothes and a home theater system, stolen from two houses. Police said three FIRs were registered against the five at Sector 11 police station.

Car crushes 2 teens, injures two others in Delhi

Two teenagers were crushed to death by a speeding Innova when it hit a group of five children at New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi at 1am on Sunday. The accused driver was arrested immediately from the spot when one of the children caught hold of him.

The deceased have been identified as Dilip and Shiva, both 14 years of age. Those injured were Sahul and Shubham, while Rahul was unhurt. The children were a resident of Gurjar Basti in east Delhi and used to supply packaged water at weddings.

Police said the children had gone to a wedding in Noida where they had to supply water. They were returning with empty bottles on Shubham’s hand-pulled cart. “We all were returning homes from Noida, Sector 11, when the car came hurtling towards us. We had stopped at Sunday Bazar near Labour Chowk to drink water when the over-speeding white car came from the wrong side,” said Rahul. He said the car lost the control after hitting their cart and dragged Dilip and Shiva for few metres. They fell into a drain and sustained injuries in abdomen. Sahul and Shubham too were injured.

Rahul, who escaped, pulled out the driver, Dharam Singh, 28, and caught hold of him till police arrived. Police said the car was coming from Kondli. “There were four people inside the car. When the driver stopped the vehicle, the other two sitting on the rear seat fled,” Rahul said.

His brother Sahul made a PCR call and the children were taken to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital. Dilip and Shiva were declared brought dead. Doctors said they died due to excessive internal bleeding. The postmortem was conducted on Monday afternoon and the bodies were handed over to their families.

Police said the driver has been arrested. The accused is a resident of east Delhi’s Rajbir Colony. He was driving a car with a Haryana number. The vehicle has been seized.

A case against the driver has been registered under Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (death due to negligence) of the IPC at New Ashok Nagar police station.

While Dilip was a Class VII student at a government school, Shiva was a school dropout.

Wife held for man’s murder

Fed up of his extramarital affairs, a woman got her friends to strangle her husband and then came up with a plan to dispose of the body. They dressed the body in a burqa, put it in a car and drove to Ghaziabad. But on the way, they were stopped by police who grew suspicious after seeing the man’s beard sticking out of the burqa. A check showed up the body and the woman and her friends were arrested.

The incident was reported from Jagatpuri police station in east Delhi. Dilshad used to own an iron grill shop and stayed with his wife Rabiya and two children. The couple used to have regular fights. On Tuesday, Rabiya sedated Dilshad with sleeping pills mixed in his morning drink. She then called in two of her friends, Maujuddin and Noor Mohammad, who strangled him.

They put the body in the front passenger seat of Maujuddin’s car. While driving towards Maujpur in UP, they were stopped at a police check post. They immediately informed their counterparts in Delhi. A case was registered at Jagatpuri police station. A team reached Dilshad’s house and Rabiya was arrested. She has confessed the crime.

Boy dies in park, family enraged

A day after a 12-year-old boy drowned in a pool at Queensland amusement park in Poonamallee, his parents and relatives blamed his school, which had taken him and other students to the park on an excursion, and park officials for negligence leading to his death.

They staged a protest at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, where doctors autopsied the body of Praveen Prabhakaran, a Class 7 student of Lakshmi Higher Secondary School, demanding that police take action against officials of the school and the amusement park.

The school took a group of 100 students, including Pabhakaran, to the park on Saturday morning. They arrived at Queensland around 11.30am. Pabhakaran and 14 other students entered a pool in the park when, Pabhakaran’s family says, the boy’s leg snagged in a net at one end of the swimming pool, causing him to drown.

By the time his classmates, who were frolicking in the water, realised that Prabhakaran was missing and alerted a teacher and lifeguards pulled him out of the water, he was unconscious. Park officials and teachers took the boy to a hospital nearby where doctors declared him dead.

Pabhakaran’s father Eswaran, a manager of a VRL Logistics branch, and his mother Sri Devi said their son was an active and healthy boy. But teachers at his school told amusement park officials that the boy had an epileptic attack that led to the drowning.

“My son did not have any health problems,” Easwaran told TOI. “School officials are trying to mislead police.”

On a complaint by Easwaran, the Nazrethpet police registered a case under CrPC Section 174 (suspicious death) and started an investigation. An official at the amusement park, on condition of anonymity, said six lifeguards were monitoring the pool.

“They rescued the boy within few seconds and gave him first aid before rushing him to a hospital,” he said.

But Prabhakaran’s family members said the pool was 3 feet deep at the spot where the drowning took place. “The boy was close to 5 feet tall, so he should have been able to stand up even if he did not know swimming,” a relative said. “It is likely that his leg got caught in a net or something else happened to him and the teachers accompanying them and the lifeguards were not alert enough to spot it in time.”

Four decades of cartoons under one roof

It was a couple of months after the Sino-Indian war in 1962 that S Swaminathan landed in New Delhi. A cartoon on the foreign policy of the Central government that appeared on the front page of a leading newspaper captured his imagination. He soon began to study the genre closely. After joining IIT, Delhi as a lecturer in 1963, he began collecting cartoons and went on doing so until he left the institution in 2000.

This collection of cartoons that appeared in leading English newspapers for almost four decades through India’s turbulent history is today among Swaminathan’s prized possessions. More than 5,000 works by veterans like RK Laxman, OV Vijayan, Abu Abraham, Sudhir Nath, and Kutty map political and social transitions in every era.

Cartoons on anti-Hindi demonstrations in the 60s, wars with China and Pakistan, policies of Indira Gandhi, the Emergency, Bofors, etc have been arranged in separate files with respective captions and slugs.

“I did it for my own pleasure. It was not easy. Every day I would collect at least some 15 cartoons from various newspapers. At the end of the month, I would sit and choose the best ones and then stick them in separate files,” said Swaminathan, also a heritage expert who authored the book, ‘Mahabalipuram: Unfinished poetry in stone’.

Although the collection is maintained well, it was after cartoonist RK Laxman’s death on January 26 that Swaminathan thought of disclosing his secret hobby to friends. “In 1986, the IIT conducted an exhibition of my collection titled ‘History through crucial decades in cartoons and caricatures’. Laxman who inaugurated the event drew some cartoons on the spot. The event got a good response from people, which in a way encouraged me to continue my journey with cartoons,” he said.

“Time was when cartoons and caricatures played a major role in the social life of India. They exposed issues to the public in a powerful way. The cartoons back then communicated well with the public. There is a lot to study in them. Unfortunately, today’s cartoons don’t appeal to me,” said Swaminathan, who is planning to donate his collection to the Roja Muthiah Research Library.

School teacher shot dead by gunmen in Pakistan

A 35-year-old Pakistani school teacher was today shot dead by two unidentified gunmen in country’s southern Sindh province, police said.

Abdul Hafeez Qazi was attacked in the early morning outside al-Mehran Public School near Qadirpur Road in Ghotki.

“At least two gunmen on a motorcycle attacked the teacher. The killers escaped after the incident,” police said.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The shooting took place shortly after assembly. No other casualties were reported as the students had already reached their respective classes, they said.

Further investigation in the matter is going on. Killing of professionals like doctors, lawyers and professors is common in Sindh’s capital Karachi where different sectarian and militants groups target rivals.

Sometimes personal enmity and money matters also lead to revenge killings.

Israel releases 14-year-old Palestinian girl from jail

A 14-year-old Palestinian girl imprisoned for hurling rocks at cars in the West Bank has been released from an Israeli jail.

Malak al-Khatib is one of the rare female Palestinian minors to face arrest and sentencing by Israel.

The girl’s fate gripped Palestinians, who said her treatment demonstrated Israel’s excessive measures against stone-throwing youth. Israel says stone-throwing can be life threatening and is often a first step toward militancy.

Israel’s military charged al-Khatib with stone throwing and possession of a knife. Under a plea bargain, she was sentenced to two months in prison and a $1,500 fine.

Her family said on Sunday that she was released on Friday after a month and a half. Israeli prison spokeswoman Sivan Weitzman said she was released early to make more room in the crowded jail.

Militants attack Shia mosque in Pakistan, 19 killed

The attack comes two weeks after a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in southern Pakistan killed 61 people, the deadliest sectarian incident to hit the country in nearly two years. (Representative picture)

Grenade-toting militants attacked a Shia mosque in northwest Pakistan on Friday, police said, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens more, with fighting still ongoing.

The attack comes two weeks after a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in southern Pakistan killed 61 people, the deadliest sectarian incident to hit the country in nearly two years.

Police said four or five gunmen threw grenades before storming the Imamia mosque in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan’s restive northwest, around the time of the main Friday prayers.

Doctor Mumtaz Khan of the Hayatabad Medical Complex said that at least 19 people had been killed and 63 wounded.

Senior police official Mian Saeed confirmed the death toll, putting the number wounded at “more than 60”.

TV footage showed people running away from the scene, some carrying injured on their shoulders, others limping, as police fired shots and checked people at a barrier.

Witness Muhammad Raza told AFP: “There was a huge explosion, I can see many injured lying in front of me.”

An AFP reporter at the scene saw soldiers and police commandos arriving.

The mosque is close to several government buildings including the offices of the Federal Investigation Agency and passport agency.

Mushtaq Ghani, information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital, told Geo TV the attack was a response to the army’s ongoing offensive against militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Since June last year the army has been waging a major campaign against strongholds of Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, which lies close to Peshawar.

The military has heralded the success of the operation, which it says has killed more than 2,000 militants, though the precise number and identity of those killed cannot be verified independently.

Pakistan has suffered a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, most of it perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shia Muslims, who make up around a fifth of the population.

The suicide bombing at a mosque in southern Sindh province on January 30 was the deadliest sectarian attack in Pakistan since February 2013, when 89 were killed in a market bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Anti-Shia attacks have been increasing in recent years in Karachi, Quetta, the northwestern area of Parachinar and the far-northeastern town of Gilgit.

The country has stepped up its fight against militants since a Taliban school massacre in Peshawar in December.

Heavily armed gunmen went from room to room at the army-run school gunning down more than 150 people, most of them children, in an attack that horrified the world.

(With inputs from AFP)

3 injured as beam falls on road in Delhi

Sanjay Bajoria, a 49-year-old businessman, and his wife Vedika (46) were rushing to hospital to meet their son, who had broken his collar bone after suffering a fall at his school. Little did they know that their day was about to get much worse.

As the couple drove on the busy outer Ring Road, a construction beam that was being installed on the Wazirpur-Janakpuri elevated corridor broke and fell on their car, turning it into a mangled wreck. Fortunately, they survived, but in a cruel irony they had to be rushed to the same hospital, Jaipur Golden, where their son had been taken earlier. Bajoria suffered severe injuries to the head and neck while Vedika had to undergo stitches to the wounds on her head.

A labourer who was fixing the beam also fell along with it and is said to be critical. Police said a case of negligence has been registered against the private contractor who was handling the job.

The incident was reported around 11am on Thursday. Locals said the workers were working on a stretch near the Pushpanjali enclave bus stop when one of the concrete beams, which weighs nearly 500kg, broke from the crane hoist and came crashing down on the road below.

Eyewitnesses said no barricade was installed at the part where the work was going on. “There were at least three cars waiting to take a U-turn on the stretch,” said Ajay Khandelwal, who owns a shop in the area. He said the beam fell directly on an i-10 car (owned by the Bajorias) and crushed it and damaged a Maruti Alto parked beside it. “Another car also suffered damages but the owner drove away,” said Khandelwal.

“I was in a hurry and wanted to take a quick U-turn below the elevated corridor. While I was waiting for the traffic to pass, there was a loud crash and my car came under a huge pile of concrete and dust,” said Bajoria, who stays in the nearby Saraswati Vihar area. The block fell on his bonnet and then rolled towards the front, after which the airbags in the car saved him, he added.

Police said the labourer, Bechan Singh, a resident of UP who has been working on this stretch of the flyover, fell on the road below. He was rushed to Ambedkar hospital where doctors said that he had a broken waist bone. Police said he remained unconscious through the day and no statement could be recorded from him.

Locals in the area said they had informed the construction workers about cracks developing on the beam a few days back but no action was taken about it. Police said that immediately after the incident, the contractor of the site fled from the scene. A case of negligence has been registered against him and the other workers are being questioned, a senior police officer said.

A PWD official said: “An elevated road is under construction here. After the pillar and central slabs had been put in place, the wings to extend the width of the road were being placed. For this, a trolley placed on top of the pillars was lifting the wings. On Thursday, while the wing was being pressed into place, the two suspenders holding the wing broke one after the other. An inquiry into the incident has been initiated and a couple of experts will be called to help us determine what went wrong. This bridge has been under construction since 2013. There is nothing wrong with the methodology or the technology. This has been replicated across projects that are ongoing in the city. There is a possibility that there was a mechanical failure. All this will be inquired into.”

College girl thrashed, dragged on Meerut road, passersby look on

In a broad daylight-incident that shocked Meerut, a young college-going woman was dragged, beaten and abused by a group of men even as passersby looked on in disbelief. A video of the assault taken by someone in the crowd soon went viral, triggering a storm of protest online.

The woman, a student of law in Meerut College, told the police on Monday that she had begun working at a local guest house last year soon after her father’s death. It was here, she said, that she was befriended by the owner, Subhash Bharti, with whom she later developed physical relations.

The attack, she told cops, came after she refused Bharti’s request to have a test-tube baby.

“On February 3, while I was in the guest house, managers of Aman Hospital, which is located in the same building that houses the guest house, attacked me. The men who attacked me were Mohd Tamur, Nasir, Wajid Ahmad and Amit Kumar. They brutally beat me and dragged me out of the complex.”

The woman alleged that she was shoved into a car after the assault but as there were witnesses, her attackers threw her on the road and escaped. Strangely, though, it was Subhash Bharti who got her admitted to a local hospital. It was from the hospital that she contacted her college friends who took her to the SSP and showed him video clippings of the assault.

Police have filed an FIR and five persons, including Tamur, Murtaza, Subhash Bharti and two women, have been arrested.

CO (Civil Lines) Vandana Mishra, who is the investigating officer in the case, told TOI on Monday, “There is too much of confusion right now but we are investigating the case thoroughly. The woman says that Subhash Bharti compelled her to have his baby and when she refused he insisted that she have a test tube baby. Why the hospital managers were involved in the case, we still have to find out.”

Cops hand city schoolgirls a fight plan

Meet this group of super-children who can take down a man twice their size with bare hands. They have been trained in Prahar, a technique of self-defence for young women developed by Delhi Police combining techniques of karate, krav maga and taekwondo.

Experts from South Korea and doctors from AIIMS collaborated in developing Prahar which can be taught in as short a time period as 15 days. So far, 6,000 children at schools in north Delhi have been trained. The course is optional for boys but compulsory for girls.

A senior police officer, who has been monitoring the programme, said it was found children taught self-defence skills through an earlier programme conducted by Delhi Police could not apply them later as it takes a little more than two years to master them. Most children did not return for the refresher courses.

A team led by additional DCP (North) Brijender Yadav was formed to look into an alternative, and easier, way to train the children within 15 days. The team consulted experts in martial arts and orthopaedic and neuro-scientists from AIIMS. The result was a technique combining taekwondo, karate and krav maga moves that does not require a lot of strength to execute.

“In case of attacks on children, the tormentor was mostly found to be someone double their size and weight. Our aim was to develop something using which they could incapacitate the person and escape. The aim is not to injure anyone,” DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.

Police approached all schools in the district and convinced them to go for the programme. “The training includes basic moves like hitting the Adam’s apple or striking the heels of an attacker which would incapacitate them for a few seconds,” said a police officer.

A study was conducted by doctors to find out the physical ability of a child in the age group of 10-16 years. The police officer said that all the strikes being taught in Prahar would require simple techniques that may be learnt by any child of that age. Delhi Police aims to train 10,000 girls in Prahar by March and start the programme in other areas of the city as well.

Afghan held for stabbing girlfriend

A man was caught red-handed by policemen, who were on election duty, when he tried to escape after stabbing his girlfriend at Kalkaji in southeast Delhi on Friday night.

The accused, Mohammad Raza, 37, is a native of Afghanistan. He lived with his girlfriend, Maya, near a DDA flat in Kalkaji. Police said Maya, 30, from Uzbekistan met Raza at a call centre where they worked together.

The incident was reported around 2am when the policemen deployed at a school, barely 100m from the spot, heard the scream of a woman. They rushed towards the couple’s flat and nabbed the accused who was trying to flee. The police went upstairs and saw the woman lying in a pool of blood.

Raza had stabbed Maya on chest with a knife. A police official said the accused stabbed her under the influence of alcohol. The weapon has been recovered.

During interrogation, he said they had an argument after which he picked up the knife to threaten her, but eventually stabbed her.

Maya was rushed to a hospital, but declared brought dead.

Raza was arrested and a case of murder was registered against him at Kalkaji police station.

Old Man pays for molesting a girl on an Indigo flight. Respect to the Girl!!!

Shared on 31 Jan 2015

This is a forward by a brave girl of what happened in the indigo flight yesterday with her !

‘This man on the seat behind mine, put his fingers in the seat gap to touch me!!! I was very shocked for sometime to react. By then the flight went to landing mode. Then the moment flight touched down, i got up. Saw his hand was again on the side ready to take up any opportunity to touch me!!! I created such a scene, humiliated him in front of the whole flight! He thought like usual girls will keep quiet and he can get away with this! I have lodged an FIR now! He is a very rich man of Bhubaneswar and is now very humiliated in front of the people who know him. Cant believe the ordeal i had to go thru but being silent is a crime! The police officer was very helpful and the Indigo staff remained with me throughout. The man is under police custody currently.
I clicked his pictures and made videos, shouted so loud that the entire plane came forward to see him! i made sure i humiliate him as much as possible because i know law will do nothing’

 

Old Man Molests A Girl On An Indigo Flight To Bhubaneswar Part 2

This man on the seat behind mine, put his fingers in the seat gap to touch me!!! I was very shocked for sometime to react. By then the flight went to landing mode. Then the moment flight touched down, i got up. Saw his hand was again on the side ready to take up any opportunity to touch me!!! I created such a scene, humiliated him in front of the whole flight! He thought like usual girls will keep quiet and he can get away with this! I have lodged an FIR now! He is a very rich man of bhubaneswar and is now very humiliated in front of the people who know him. Cant believe the ordeal i had to go thru but being silent is a crime! The police officer was very helpful and the Indigo staff remained with me throughout. The man is under police custody currently.

I clicked his pictures and made videos, shouted so loud that the entire plane came forward to see him! i made sure i humiliate him as much as possible because i know law will do nothing.”

The man ( dunno if he can be called a man though) has the gall to smile …even if it’s nervous laughter. Even says ” I am the father of a daughter”

The girl says ” you choose the action I choose the reaction”

Death toll hits 31 in Taiwan plane crash, with 12 missing

Rescuers were searching for 12 people Thursday morning after using a crane to hoist the fuselage of a wrecked TransAsia Airways plane from a shallow river in Taiwan’s capital following a crash that killed at least 31 others.

Flight 235 with 58 people aboard — many of them travelers from China — banked sharply on its side Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Taipei, clipped a highway bridge and then careened into the Keelung River.

Rescuers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people alive from the wreckage during daylight. After dark, they brought in the crane, and the death toll was expected to rise once crews were able to search through submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen meters (yards) from the shore.

Dramatic video clips apparently taken from cars were posted online and aired by broadcasters, showing the ATR 72 propjet as it pivoted onto its side while zooming toward a traffic bridge over the river. In one of them, the plane rapidly fills the frame as its now-vertical wing scrapes over the road, hitting a vehicle before heading into the river.

Speculation cited in local media said the crew may have turned sharply to follow the line of the river to avoid crashing into a high-rise residential area, but Taiwan’s aviation authority said it had no evidence of that.

Taiwanese broadcasters repeatedly played a recording of the plane’s final contact with the control tower in which the crew called out “Mayday” three times. The recording offered no direct clues as to why the plane was in distress.

It was the airline’s second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year. Wednesday’s flight had taken off at 11:53 a.m. from Taipei’s downtown Sungshan Airport en route to the outlying Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen islands. The crew issued the mayday call shortly after takeoff, Taiwanese civil aviation authorities said.

TransAsia director Peter Chen said contact with the plane was lost four minutes after takeoff. He said weather conditions were suitable for flying and the cause of the accident was unknown.

“Actually this aircraft in the accident was the newest model. It hadn’t been used for even a year,” he told a news conference.

Thirty-one passengers were from China, Taiwan’s tourism bureau said. Kinmen’s airport is a common link between Taipei and China’s Fujian province.

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said 31 people were confirmed dead, 15 were rescued with injuries and 12 were still missing. It said two people on the ground were hurt.

Part of the freeway above the river where the plane crashed was littered with debris and was closed after the accident.

Relatives of the victims had not reached the scene by dusk Wednesday but some were expected to arrive Thursday, including some flying from Beijing.

The plane’s wing hit a taxi on the freeway, and the driver and a passenger were injured, Chen said.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had sent 165 people and eight boats to the riverside rescue scene, joining fire department rescue crews.

Another ATR 72 operated by the same Taipei-based airline crashed in the outlying Taiwan-controlled islands of Penghu last July 23, killing 48 at the end of a typhoon for reasons that are still under investigation.

ATR, a French-Italian consortium based in Toulouse, France, said it was sending a team to Taiwan to help in the investigation.

The ATR 72-600 that crashed Wednesday is manufacturer’s best plane model, and the pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at Flightglobal magazine in Singapore, said the ATR 72-600 is the latest iteration of one of the most popular turboprop planes in the world, particularly favored for regional short-hop flights in Asia.

It has a generally good reputation for safety and reliability and is known among airlines for being cheap and efficient to operate.

While it’s too early to say what caused the crash, engine trouble or weight shifting were unlikely to be causes, Waldron said. Other possible factors include pilot error, weather or freak incidents such as bird strikes.

“It’s too early now to speculate on whether it was an issue with the aircraft or crew,” Waldron said.

The accessibility of the crash site should allow for a swift investigation, and an initial report should be available within about a month, Waldron said.

Taiwan plane with 58 aboard crash lands in rive…

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A Taiwanese flight with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and careened into a river in the island’s capital of Tapei today morning. Stormy weather and low visibility were suspected as factors in that crash. In this image the plane lies in the river after crashing in Taipei, Taiwan. (AP photo)

Three more arrested for central Delhi encounter

Three people were arrested for their involvement in an encounter in central Delhi on Saturday, which killed a boy and wounded a policeman. The trio was arrested for helping one of the criminals, Montu, to escape. A search is on to nab the other three who also helped Montu, and are now absconding.

The arrested men identified as Krishan (21), Sunny (32) and Vikas (28) are Montu’s relatives. Police said that he sustained bullet injuries and later admitted himself to Hardinge hospital. Montu is in police custody now and will be arrested once he recovers.

During the raid, Deepak, th teenage aide of Montu was shot. Police said that Sunny, Montu’s younger brother helped him escape through the terrace by standing guard at the exit to fend off the policemen. Montu was nabbed later when he admitted himself to the hospital.

“Both the accused, Krishan and Sunny, have nine cases of robbery, snatching and theft against them while Vikas has a dozen cases of heinous crimes against him,” said a senior police officer.

Couple kills alcoholic son, hacks body

An elderly couple, fed up with their 27-year-old alcoholic son, bludgeoned him to death and chopped the body using a stone-cutter. They even dumped the parts in a forest near their home and had their house painted to remove any trace of the crime. Nand Kishore and Asha Devi, who are both in their 60s, have been arrested.

The incident came to light on January 8, when the youth’s partially decomposed palm was found in the forest. Police said an investigation was launched and the remaining parts were also recovered. During postmortem, the victim was identified as Suraj Bhan.

Suraj’s neighbours told police he had been missing since December and his parents claimed he had got a job in Saudi Arabia. The neighbour also said the youth’s parents often had tiffs with anyone and everyone who asked about Suraj.

“A team led by Jaitpur SHO Sunil Sharma was formed and the victim’s parents were questioned,” said Mandeep Singh Randhawa, DCP (southeast). Police said the duo initially tried to dodge questions, claiming they were in grief and were not in a position to talk about their son’s death. The investigating officers, however, became suspicious when the couple started avoiding any kind of interaction.

The couple’s home was raided during which a blood-stained hammer and some clothes with the victim’s blood on them were found. On being questioned, Asha Devi broke down and confessed to killing her son. She said Suraj had threatened them when they refused to buy him alcohol.

On January 8, Suraj came home drunk and asked his father for money. An argument ensued during which Kishore hit Suraj with a hammer. She told police that he fell unconscious, after which they strangled him and chopped the body. Nand Kishore dumped the parts.

Police said Nand Kishore used to work as a mason but had lost his job. He had sold some property to marry off his daughter and was surviving on the remaining amount. Suraj was unmarried and drove a taxi.

Stepfather held for raping minor for three years

A resident of Kadipur was arrested on Thursday for allegedly raping his stepdaughter for three years. The accused, Aftab, was arrested by Sector 10A PS for raping his stepdaughter, aged 13, with whom he lived in a rented accommodation, along with her biological mother.

The alleged crime came to light on Wednesday night when the child was taken to the Sector 9 ESI Hospital after her physical condition deteriorated. The girl shared her story with another patient who was already admitted in the hospital, who immediately informed the authorities.

“The survivor told the woman that her mother and father had separated three years ago. Since then, her mother had been living with Aftab. She said the stepfather had been raping her since she was 10 years old,” revealed sources.

The survivor tried to apprise her mother of her trauma, but was rebuffed. The mother’s lack of sympathy may have further encouraged Aftab, as the frequency of rape increased over last six months. This eventually led to the deterioration in the child’s physical condition.

The woman patient who heard the survivor’s tale, took her to police and medical tests conducted on her soon confirmed rape. The victim recorded the same statements in front of a magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC.

Following this, Sector 10A police lodged an FIR against Aftab and arrested him. Notwithstanding the girl’s statement accusing her mother of being fully aware of the incident, the mother expressed shock when questioned.

“We have arrested Aftab and are questioning him. He will be produced in court on Friday,” said inspector Deepak Kumar, SHO, Sector 10A PS.

Monkey invasion at Chennai airport

If you are flying in to or out of Chennai airport, make sure that you clutch your bag close to you. A monkey, one of the two male primates that created a ruckus in the domestic lounge on Sunday, is still having a free run.

A three-member team from the forest department did monkey acts, literally, to capture one of the animals on Sunday night. They have kept a cage with fruits as bait for the second one which is hiding inside a false ceiling at the old domestic terminal.

Airport officials said they spotted the two monkeys on Sunday evening at security hold area of the departure floor of the new building near gate 1. There was no passenger movement as it was a secluded area. The airport authorities called the Velachery forest range office. Three anti-poaching experts soon came and devised a plan. They placed bananas on the floor and imitated the behavior of the two monkeys in an attempt to get close to them. They ran, jumped, scratched their heads and backs and even tried to climb up the railings, like the monkeys.

After hopping around for several hours at the lounge, one of them got near enough to grab a monkey by its neck with his bare hands when it jumped on the floor to pick up a banana. “That was the only way to catch them,” said the expert. “Since there were two monkeys, it might be difficult catch them if we place a cage or carry handheld instruments.” The captured monkey was later released.

Two anti-poaching watchers were still waiting at the lounge with a cage as of late Monday evening hoping that the other primate would walk in through the grilled gate of the cage where they had placed fruits. Officials said the second monkey is hiding inside a false ceiling in the old domestic terminal building, portion of which is lined to the new building and is used to route passengers to aerobridges for boarding.“It looks like it is tired and is not coming down because forest staff caught and packed the other monkey in a gunny bag in front of it,” an airport official said. “There is no chance for the monkey to go into the operations area where flights are parked,” he said.

Forest ranger S Davidraj said the monkeys must have come from the neighbouring Tirusulum hills. This is the first time monkeys have entered the airport. The spot where the second monkey was seen last was the same place where a cat chased and caught a pigeon last year. Airport authorities closed many openings on the roof of the building after passengers complained about pigeons.

Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman, a force for unity in royal family

Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, is a veteran of the country’s top leadership, versed in diplomacy from nearly 50 years as the governor of the capital Riyadh and known as a mediator of disputes within the sprawling royal family.

Salman, 79, had increasingly taken on the duties of the king over the past year as his ailing predecessor and half-brother, Abdullah, became more incapacitated. Abdullah died before dawn on Friday at 90.

Salman had served as defense minister since 2011 and so was head of the military as Saudi Arabia joined the United States and other Arab countries in carrying out airstrikes in Syria in 2014 against the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group that the kingdom began to see as a threat to its own stability.

He takes the helm at a time when the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom and oil powerhouse is trying to navigate social pressures from a burgeoning youth population — over half the population of 20 million is under 25 — seeking jobs and increasingly testing boundaries of speech on the Internet, where criticism of the royal family is rife.

READ ALSO: Saudi King Abdullah dies, new ruler is Salman

The new king’s health has been a question of concern. He suffered at least one stroke that has left him with limited movement on his left arm.

King Abdullah had carried out a slow but determined series of reforms aimed at modernizing the country, including increasing education and nudging open the margins of rights for women. Salman appears to have fallen in line with those reforms. But he has also voiced concerns about moving too fast.

In a 2007 meeting, he told an outgoing US ambassador that “social and cultural factors” — even more than religious — mean change has to be introduced slowly and with sensitivity, noting the power of the multiple tribes in the kingdom, according to an embassy memo of the meeting leaked by the Wikileaks whistleblower site.

He struck the same theme in a 2010 interview with Karen Elliot House, author of “On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines.” He told her that while Americans are unified by democracy, Saudi Arabia is in essence unified by his family, the Al Sauds. “We can’t have democracy in Saudi Arabia, he said, because if we did every tribe would be a party and then we would be like Iraq and would have chaos,” House told The Associated Press.

That was House’s second meeting with Salman. Her first was in the 1980s when, she said, he “seemed to be rather kind of stiff and regal and he pontificated more than he responded.” But in 2010, “he was a different guy, kind of softer and less formal and much less self-important.”

Salman is one of the dozens of sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud — thought to have had more than 50 sons from multiple wives. Notably, he was one of so-called “Sudeiri Seven” — seven sons born to one of Abdul-Aziz’s most favored wives, Hussa bint Ahmad Sudeiri. The seven full-brothers were seen as a center of power within the family. Abdullah’s predecessor, King Fahd, was among the seven, as were Abdullah’s first two crown princes, Sultan and Nayef, who died in 2011 and 2012 respectively before ever reaching the throne.

The Al Saud family has long sought to keep a united front, papering over any internal disputes to keep the stability of its rule. Salman appears to have played a frequent role in ensuring that unity. The 2007 US Embassy memo said he “is often the referee in family disputes.” It pointed to an incident after King Abdullah formalized the Allegiance Council, a body of top royals that is tasked with voting on succession issues based on merit and not just age. Salman’s eldest living brother, Abdul-Rahman, was outspoken in his criticism of the arrangement, but Salman bluntly told his brother to “shut up and get back to work,” according to the memo.

Salman is also known to have extensive contacts among the country’s tribes and his influence is further extended through a network of family businesses, including a stake in the pan-Arab newspaper ASharq Al-Awsat.

At a relatively young age, Salman became the governor of Riyadh in 1963 and over the next 48 years he oversaw its transformation from an isolated desert town into a crowded city of skyscrapers, universities and Western fast-food chains. He also saw it struggle to keep up with demand for affordable housing and sufficient public transportation for its 4 million residents. The post made him well known internationally, as he played host for VIPs and international envoys and helped secure foreign investment for the country’s heartland and capital.

He was elevated to defense minister in 2011, and then Abdullah named him crown prince — heir to throne — when Nayef died.

In discussions with US diplomats in 2007 revealed in several memos, Salman spoke out against militancy, but added that Jewish and Christian extremism has fed Islamic extremism — even warning that the United States will one day see a threat from Jewish and Christian radicals. He told the Americans that the key to bringing stability to the Middle East is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that Israel is “a burden on the US”

Salman’s sons include Prince Abdulaziz, the deputy oil minister; Prince Faisal, the governor of Medina; and Prince Sultan, the first Arab astronaut and current head of the tourism authority

The most influential, however, is believed to be Prince Mohamed, the eldest son from Salman’s third wife. In his 30s, Mohammed is the head of his father’s court.

Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz dies, new ruler is Salman

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah died early on Friday and his brother Salman became king, the royal court in the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam said in a statement carried by state television.

King Salman has named his half-brother Muqrin as his crown prince and heir.

“His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1am this morning,” said the statement.

Abdullah, thought to have been born in 1923, had ruled Saudi Arabia as king since 2006, but had run the country as de facto regent for a decade before that after his predecessor King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke.

Photo of Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (AP photo)

At stake with the appointment of Salman as king is the future direction of the United States’ most important Arab ally and self-appointed champion of Sunni Islam at a moment of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.

READ ALSO: Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman, a force for unity in royal family

Oil rises after death of Saudi king, but effect seen muted

Abdullah played a guiding role in Saudi Arabia’s support for Egypt’s government after the military intervened in 2012, and drove his country’s support for Syria’s rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

King Salman, thought to be 79, has been crown prince and defence minister since 2012. He was governor of Riyadh province for five decades before that.

By immediately appointing Muqrin as his heir, subject to the approval of a family Allegiance Council, Salman has moved to avert widespread speculation about the immediate path of the royal succession in the world’s top oil exporter.

Late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. (Reuters photo)

Long term challenges

Abdullah pushed cautious changes in the conservative Islamic kingdom including increased women’s rights and economic deregulation, but made no moves towards democracy and was a hawk on policy towards rival Iran.

King Salman has been part of the ruling clique of princes for decades and is thought likely to continue the main thrusts of Saudi strategic policy, including maintaining the alliance with the United States and working towards energy market stability.

During his five decades as Riyadh governor he was reputedly adept at managing the delicate balance of clerical, tribal and princely interests that determine Saudi policy, while maintaining good relations with the West.

In the long term Saudi rulers have to manage the needs of a rapidly growing population plagued by structural unemployment, and an economy that remains overly dependent on oil revenue and undermined by lavish subsidies.

Saudi Arabia, which holds more than a fifth of the world’s crude oil, also exerts some influence over the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims through its guardianship of Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest sites.

Most senior members of the ruling al-Saud family are thought to favour similar positions on foreign and energy policy, but incoming kings have traditionally chosen to appoint new ministers to head top ministries like oil and finance.

In a country where the big ministries are dominated by royals, successive kings have kept the oil portfolio reserved for commoners and insisted on maintaining substantial spare output capacity to help reduce market volatility.

Britain warns India of possible terror attack by ISIS

Britain has warned India about possible attack by ISIS and said all efforts must be taken to check activities of the Middle East terrorist group.

British officials have conveyed this to their Indian counterparts at the India-UK counter terrorism joint working group meeting held in London on January 15-16.

Officials said that during the meeting, India had asked Britain to impress upon Pakistan not to differentiate between “good” and “bad” terrorists in the wake of recent attack on a school in Peshawar and said that it must take a firm stand on why Pakistan had become a nursery of terrorists.

READ ALSO: ISIS throws ‘gay’ men off tower, stones woman

“We have asked Britain to be alert about possible attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba there. Britain in turn has warned us that an attack by ISIS could take place in India,” an official said.

ISIS jihadists seen here carrying out summary executions of captured Iraqi soldiers.

Britain was more focused on the ISIS threat than from Pakistan-based terror groups.

“Britain is petrified that a terror attack can take place on its soil by ISIS and radical elements associated with it may help the group,” the official said.

British security agencies have good links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and they feel that it is an insurance for preventing a terror attack on its soil by Pakistan-based terror groups, the official said.

READ ALSO: Kalyan youth with alleged ISIS links arrested

Four Mumbai youth had disappeared in Iraq-Syria in May 2014 and apparently joined ISIS. One of them returned in November last year and was subsequently arrested.

This banner featuring Areeb Majeed, the Indian youth who joined ISIS, surfaced on a jihadist website.

A Bangalore-based executive was also arrested last month for operating a pro-ISIS Twitter handle to propagate the ideology of the Middle-East terrorist group.

A US-returned engineer, on way to join ISIS, arrested in Hyderabad two days ago.

Mumbai on high alert after intelligence input about terror attack

Mumbai has been put on high alert after intelligence inputs warning about a terror attack by Pakistan-based jihadi elements targeting Siddhivinayak Temple.

According to input shared by IB with Mumbai and Maharashtra police, Pakistan sponsored jihadi elements Jamaat-ud-Dawa, LeT, Jaish- e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen have already dispatched four action groups to India for carrying out attacks before 28th January, 2015.

READ ALSO: Britain warns India of possible terror attack by ISIS

Out of the four action teams first team is located in Maharashtra, second in Rajasthan, third in Uttar Pradesh and fourth in Odisha.

For Mumbai, the specific target is Siddhivinayak Temple and the attack would be carried out on any Tuesday when there is huge crowd present in and around the temple premises.

The Mumbai attack team is led by one Abdullah al-Quresi and assisted by Nasir Ali, Jabed Ekbal, Mobid Zeman and Shamsher (all in the age group of 25 years)

Two killed, 29 wounded in Brazil prison riot

A police officer and an inmate were killed and 29 prisoners wounded in the latest riot to hit Brazil’s overcrowded prison system, authorities said.

The violence erupted in a Recife jail when an orderly protest broke down, and was brought under control only after police arrived.

One officer died of a bullet wound in hospital, while details surrounding the inmate’s death were not released.

The death and injury toll was confirmed by the secretary of public safety for Pernambuco state, whose capital is Recife.

Gunfire and explosions were heard coming from inside the prison, and G1 Globo newsportal showed a helicopter with an armed official flying overhead.

Brazilian jails have faced a string of riots in recent months. The system’s 563,000 inmates make Brazil’s prison population the fourth-largest after the United States, China and Russia, according Amnesty International.

Human rights NGO Conectas meanwhile has reported that Brazil prisons must boost capacity by more than 2,00,000 spaces to avoid overcrowding.

Pernambuco announced the opening of two new prisons in January and the expansion of another.

Less that a year ago, two prisoners were killed at another Recife prison riot.

30 missing kids rescued from Mumbai by Gzb cops

Thirty missing children have been rescued by the Ghaziabad police from Mumbai in the ongoing second phase of Operation Smile, which was launched on January 1 at the instance of the Union home ministry.

While 28 of these rescued kids belong to various districts of UP, two of them are from Bihar and Odisha.

Cops said the kids have been brought back from Mumbai and are now lodged in the shelter homes of Ghaziabad. Efforts are under way to contact their parents to reunite the kids with their families.

All the rescued kids had gone missing from their homes in the past three months. In their accounts narrated to police, most kids said they had left their homes for various social and economic reasons. The kids are in the age group of 9-15 years.

Teams of Ghaziabad police had been sent to Mumbai for the operation. While four children were rescued by these teams from a shelter home in Thane, the remaining 26 were found in a shelter home in Umerkhedi. Of the 28 UP kids, one belongs to Ghaziabad district while the rest are from other districts including Ballia, Bahraich, Mau, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Barabanki.

Brace for two bus fare hikes this year

Brace for two bus fare hikes, one in February and the other in April. BEST’s budget, in which the hikes were proposed, was cleared by the BMC on Tuesday evening.

From February 1, the minimum bus fare will be Rs 7 instead of Rs 6, and from April 1 it will rise to Rs 8 (refer to box for details). AC bus fares will increase by Rs 5, from a minimum of Rs 20 to Rs 25 in February and to Rs 30 in April.

BEST general manager Jagdish Patil told TOI, “As of now, we are not getting any subsidy from the BMC. So, commuters will have to face the burden of two fare hikes this year.” The is unprecedented for the transport undertaking.

The budget had mentioned that the February fare hike could be curtailed or rolled back if there was a subsidy of Rs 150 crore from the civic body. But the latter seems to have rejected the demand.

BEST hopes to earn around Rs 300 crore from the hikes, sources said. “The hike was necessary as we are already facing the burden of fuel price hikes and bus maintenance costs,” a senior official said.

BEST committee member Kedar Hombalkar said the BMC, the state and the Centre should consider the importance of BEST as a lifeline for Mumbai’s residents and instead of giving a cash subsidy, they can waive taxes and toll.

People said they are angry over ΒÊŠΤ’s “poor quality of service” and so the fare hikes are not justified. “It is shocking to still see buses being operated with route numbers and names written out with chalk on slate board. Buses are unclean and their rods and handles broken in some cases,” a regular bus user said. Another complained of broken seats.

Another Delhi cop killed, this time by bootleggers

Two bootleggers on a bike shot a constable in Alipur, outer Delhi, on Monday night and grappled with a home guard when the duo flagged them down for checks. The shooting, which occurred near the Alipur police station, follows a spate of attacks and run-ins last year in which 25 personnel were killed.

The killers, Govinda, 35, and 30-year-old Malkhit were arrested in the early hours from a village nearby.

Constable Karamveer, 30, and home guard Surender Singh, 40, were on patrol on a motorbike after receiving information that two men would be heading for Tigri border with a crate of liquor. Around 11.30pm, they saw a bike at Bhartuj Chowk and signalled it to stop. Seeing the policemen, the bikers tried to speed away but Karamveer grabbed the pillion rider who was holding the crate. As the liquor bottles shattered, Karamveer pinned the man down, but he removed his jacket, pulled out a pistol and shot the constable in the chest.
READ ALSO: Truck crushes cop at east Delhi checkpost

The duo then fled, leaving the bike behind. Home guard Surender Singh gave chase for some distance but returned to call reinforcements to save a bleeding Karamveer. By the time the constable made it to hospital, it was too late.

A team led by DCP Vikramjit Singh launched a manhunt. Intelligence revealed that the duo — Govinda and Malkhit — belonged to Jhangola village and several teams reached there around 4am. However, villagers attacked the cops and pelted them with stones in a bid to save the killers who were hiding in a house. After an hour’s scuffle, the policemen managed to ward off the locals and nabbed the killers. A pistol and a few cartridges were recovered from them.

Police said that the duo was suspected to be a part of an interstate bootlegging gang which had been evading cops for the past few months. They are looking for other gang members as well. A case of murder under section 302 of IPC has been registered against the two men.
READ ALSO: Proposals to protect cops still on paper

Karamveer’s body was handed over to his family members on Tuesday morning. Senior officers paid homage at Kingway Camp. Karamveer’s wife and two children stay at a police colony in Narela outer district. His brother Mahender said Karamveer had joined the force in 2006 after his marriage. “He was inspired by our cousin brother who is also a policeman. He also wanted his children to grow up in Delhi and have an English-medium education,” Mahender said.

Two electrocuted by high tension wires

In a gruesome accident at Sector 10 in Noida on Sunday evening, two linemen were electrocuted while shifting high-tension lines to underground fixtures. Their bodies were stuck to the heavy electrical wires for nearly an hour.

Mohd Hasan, 21, and Saddam Hussain, 27, were on a pole removing 11 kVA lines from a conductor when the accident happened police said. The electrocution was so severe, it not only took over an hour to separate the two bodies, but also body parts of the two linemen were separated from their torsos, police added.

UPPCL officials said they had shut down power in the linefrom the Sector 20 and Sector 9 stations at 2.10 pm before the duo began work. The accident occurred around 5 pm.

SP Yogesh Singh said, “The duo was carrying out wiring work when the line became live, and they were electrocuted. The bodies were stuck to the line. Along with cops, we called the fire department. But they struggled for an hour to extricate the bodies. We’ve sent them for autopsy,” he added.

Hasan was Saddam’s nephew. Hasan was to get married in two months time. Saddam had a wife and a two-year-old son.

Police said it had not lodged an FIR as it has received no complaint from either families of the deceased or the Noida Authority. “We’ve informed the family. Once they reach Noida, we hope to lodge an FIR based on their complaint,” said Yogesh Singh.

Noida Authrity deputy CEO Vijay Yadav said the contractor carrying out the work was NKG Infrastructure. “We’ve ordered an internal probe. We’ll examine if it occurred due to resumption of power supply or back flow of power from the generator. We’ll also examine the role of the contractor, whether he had followed security procedures or not,” Yadav said.

“I’ve been told power sometimes flows back to the line from heavy generators run by some factories. But it is a rare occurrence — only one or two such cases happen per thousand. I’ve called a meeting on Monday. We’ll design a mechanism so that such incidents do not recur,” Yadav added.

UPPCL blamed the Authority and its contractors for the accident. UPPCL superintending engineer Arvind Rajvedi said, “Before such work, electricians should be given security equipment and uniforms. On many occasions, we have noticed a lapse in security measures. We’ve learnt back flow of power to the main line from a heavy generator led to the accident.”

The UP electricity safety commission will probe the case. “An inspector-rank officer will be asked to submit a report 15 days from the date of beginning probe,” a power department official said.

Experts say injuries could be minimized and lives saved if proper rescue techniques are adopted. Timely response and treatment of victims is a major concern. “When an electrical accident occurs, a victim is often incapable of releasing the electrical conductor as muscles clamp. Attempts to rescue an accident victim may pose as big a hazard to the rescuer as the victim. Caution should be a primary consideration during an electrical accident or emergency. There should always be an emergency response plan for scheduled electrical maintenance work,” experts said.

Car catches fire after head-on collision

A 30-year-old Noida resident was injured after another car coming from the opposite direction rammed his vehicle at Adobe crossing in Sector 25 on Sunday morning. The victim’s car burst into flames soon after impact and was completely gutted. The driver of the other car after the accident. A hunt has been launched to nab him.

Police said Manu Srivastava, a content specialist working out of Noida and resident of Sector 66, was going to Manesar for work in his Maruti Alto when, at the crossing, a Mahindra Xylo travelling on the opposite direction went out of control and crashed into his car head-on, at 8 am. While the Alto was smashed, the Xylo ran over a divider and was trapped there.

Manu was locked inside his car. Passersby smashed the windows to rescue him, minutes before the car burst into flames. The Xylo also caught fire and was partially burnt. The driver of the Xylo, however, fled soon after the accident. A fire tender later reached the site to douse the fire. Manu was admitted to a private hospital in Sector 66, and is reportedly out of danger. “We have conducted a CT scan and the report suggests there is no head injury. He is in shock, but out of danger,” a doctor said.

Hema Gupta, Manu’s wife said a professional camera, a mobile phone, a hard disc and some cash were burnt down in the accident. An FIR has been filed against the driver of the Xylo, in Sector 24 PS.

Delhi boy dies after brawl over booze in Ghaziabad

A 23-year-old youth from Ashok Nagar in east Delhi was killed on Saturday, allegedly from a head injury sustained during a brawl over a bottle of alcohol in a Ghaziabad hotel. The victim, Rahul Raghav, was attending the birthday party of a friend on Friday evening at a private hotel in Sector 16 of Vasundhara, when the brawl broke out.

Raghav, a BTech student, was rushed by friends to Narendra Mohan Hospital in Mohan Nagar for treatment, where he succumbed to his injury at around 1:45 am on Saturday. Based on a complaint filed by Rahul’s uncle, Vasant Raghav, a government contractor in Delhi, Police have arrested a 25-year-old youth, Vishnu Dutt Goswami, who allegedly hit Rahul’s head with a water jug causing his death.

An FIR under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC has been registered.

Apart from his studies, Rahul also used to help Vasant in his business. “Rahul was taken to the hospital by three of his friends. By the time I reached there around an hour-and-a-half after the incident, he was bleeding profusely. Cops said the hotel does not have any CCTV footage. Rahul was a teetotaler. His group of friends did not seem to be drunk either. Rahul had a fight with another group, comprising Vishnu and other guys, who were reportedly drunk at the time,” Vasant said.

Doctors said Rahul had been brought in to the emergency ward at 11:15 pm. “Rahul was brought with a head injury. We transferred him to the ICU, when his condition deteriorated. He died at 1:45 am,” said a hospital spokesman.

The hotel management said the brawl broke out in their banquet hall, which had been booked for a birthday party by Gaurav Sharma, 25. “Around 35 guests came around 9 pm. There was a commotion in the banquet hall at around 10:15 pm. When we rushed there, a big fight had broken out. It was not clear who was hitting whom. In order to drive away the crowd, I raised a false alarm that cops had arrived. It worked and most guests fled. Rahul had been seriously injured by then. We had hired out the banquet hall for the party alone, and were not serving eatables or alcohol. If at all the guests had consumed alcohol, they must have done so in their cars outside,” said hotel manager Prashant Gupta.

Cop killed chasing juvenile who fled custody

A Juhu police constable died in Matunga on Saturday while chasing a juvenile criminal who had escaped from police custody. The deceased was taking the accused to a children’s remand home and they were walking near the Matunga station when the incident took place.

Rajendra Naik (42) died after plunging 25-ft from the railway yard in Matunga. The incident took place around 4.30pm. As Naik started chasing the boy , the latter jumped on the yard roof.Naik also climbed the yard roof, but due to his weight, he came crashing down, said the Shahu Nagar police.

The 16-year-old accused was caught for assault in a fight between two persons at the Nehru Nagar slum in Juhu. Both parties had filed cross-complaints against each other and the police had arrested the minor accused. Naik was taking the accused to the children’s remand home in Dongri when the incident took place.

Naik is survived by his wife and two kids who live in Bandra.It’s not clear how Naik and the accused were travelling. Cops indicated that there was no police vehicle with Naik and that he was using public transport to travel along with the accused.

DCP Mahesh Patil said, “Naik was escorting the juvenile when he gave him the slip. The constable chased the boy and followed him to the railway yard roof,” said Patil. “The juvenile escaped from the roof and is yet to be caught. Naik was severely injured and was declared dead in hospital,” said Shahu Nagar senior inspector Babaji Awhad.

Semi-nude body of woman found in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, rape suspected

A 29-year-old woman was found dead in mysterious circumstances in the jungles of Vasant Kunj. There were several injuries on her body and cops suspect that she was murdered. The body was found in a semi-nude state.

“It seems that the victim was gang raped before being murdered,” a police official investigating the matter. The woman has been identified as a resident of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and lived in South Delhi’s Sultanpur. She indulged in embroidery and stitching for a living,” police official said.

The crime and forensic team is at the spot along with the area DCP. The family members have been informed and an FIR has been registered.

Tired of advice, grandson killed man in Chennai

A 70-year-old whose body was found in a suitcase in Madhavaram on Saturday was killed by his grandson who was irked by his grandfather Maxwell J Williams’ constant advice to stay away from drugs, an investigation has found.

Police said Michael S Jerome Bosco, 25, a drug addict, strangled Williams after tying his hands. After keeping the body on a terrace for two days, he packed it in a suitcase and dumped it on the roadside near Madhavaram. The murder came to light when passerby saw the suitcase on 80 Feet Road on Thursday morning. The victim’s identity was established only on Friday when a relative of Williams, on seeing newspaper reports, approached police to crosscheck since Williams was missing for three days.

Williams, an Anglo-Indian, was a retired employee of Chennai Port Trust, He was living mostly with his son in Australia after retirement. He came to Chennai two months ago and was staying in his niece’s house at SRP Colony in Peravallur.

An investigation officer said, “During the stay, Williams found out that Bosco was addicted to several narcotic drugs. Bosco was also unemployed after he lost his job as a sales executive in a real estate company. Williams repeatedly advised Bosco to give up drugs and get a job, much to the dislike of the youngster .”

On Monday, Williams asked Bosco to take him to a bank. After drawing 80,000 from the bank, they returned home. “Bosco stole 10,000 from his grandfather. Williams found this out and advised him again,” said another police officer. Angered by this, Bosco strangled Williams when he was sleeping after tying his hands on Monday afternoon. He took the rest of the cash, locked the room and went out to get a suitcase. “In the night, he packed the body in the suitcase and kept it on the terrace of his house. The body went unnoticed for two days. He lit incense sticks near the suitcase to mask the odour,” said the officer.

In the wee hours of Thursday, he decided to dispose of the body. “He tied the suitcase on his father’s motorbike, planning to dump it at a faraway place. But the nylon rope gave way while he was riding and the suitcase fell off the motorbike. Bosco left it there and went back home,” the officer said.

Madhavaram police arrested Bosco and remanded him in judicial custody.

FAC ( Fight Against CRiMe)

Bomb blast injures 3 in Dum Dum

At least three persons, including two children, were critically injured on Saturday afternoon when a container bomb lying beside a railway track near Dum Dum Cantonment railway station exploded. The bomb was among three such devices found lying near the tracks. A transistor circuit was also recovered from the blast site, sources said.

A large contingent of police, rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area where the two unexploded bombs were still lying. A bomb disposal squad from Barrackpore police commissionerate, and later a CID team with its own bomb disposal squad, arrived at the spot.

Though locals claimed that a wire was seen emerging from the bomb before it exploded, police initially ruled it out.

“During the inspection of the containers, neither highly explosive materials nor a wire or a circuit were found. We suspect crude bombs were kept in the container, which exploded after the children tried to pick it up. Officials are still at the spot and are investigating the matter,” said Ajay Thakur, detective chief of the Barrackpore commissionerate.

The incident took place around 4.30pm when ragpickers Safik Ahmed (10) and Saharukh Hossain (14), from the Sapuipara slum went into a bush beside the railway tracks at gate No. 2 between Dum Dum Cantonment and Durganar railway station. One of the containers lying in the bush exploded when the children picked it up.

“We heard a loud noise and rushed to the spot to find the two children lying on the ground, writhing in pain. They sustained severe splinter injuries. A passerby was also hit by the splinters and injured,” said to FAC Swarup Das, a local resident.

The railway services were not, however, disrupted due to the blast.

Fire kills mentally ill woman locked at home in Mumbai

A 26-year-old me8n8tally challenged woman was burned alive in a fire that broke out in her second-floor home in Undiriya Street, Bhendi Ba8zar, on Thursday. The blaze left a bedridden senior citizen injured.

According to residents of the ground-plus-three storey Aqsa building in the crowded Na8gpada area, Amina Qureshi had been locked in the house by her father who had gone out. With the windows too sh8ut by him, Amina’s desperate pleas for help through the gr8i8l8le went in vain as the blaze spread fast.

“Local boys tried to douse the blaze from outside, but could not rescue her because the door and windows were locked,” a resident said.

Sajida Kazi Damani (65), who is ill and was stuck in her third-floor house, was rescued by firemen and admitted to J J Hospital, Byculla, as she suffered from suffocation due to the flames.

Firemen reportedly reached the spot with 5 fire engines, 3 water tankers and an ambulance almost 45 minutes after the call was made. “The incident took place at 4.45pm and we called fire brigade around 5pm. Maybe due to traffic and the area being crowded, especially in the evening, fire brigade vehicles could not reach in time,” Mohammad Kasim, a local, said. Fire brigade officials, however, claimed they had reached the building quickly despite the traffic and congested lanes. They said a probe was on, but the reason for the fire was still to be ascertained. An official said the window grille proved a huge problem in their operation. “We rescued a 65-year-old woman and brought her down on a stretcher,” an official said.

Amina, whose elder brother died four years ago, was living in the building with her father. She was alone at home when the blaze broke out. “She could have survived had we been able to open the door,” a resident said. “Till the fire brigade tanker came, the local boys tried hard to douse the blaze. We heard something like a cylinder blast, but no one knows the reason for it,” he added.

Mayor Snehal Ambekar, who visited the building, told Fight Against CRiMe, “I have told fire brigade officials to submit a report on the reason for the blaze and why they were late to reach the spot.”

Noida official sold 60 buyers fake plots

Sixty people have lodged complaints with the Noida Authority, claiming one of its employees cheated them out of crores of rupees on the pretext of allotting them plots in the city’s prime locations.

Noida Authority officials on Thursday said prima facie, the employee, Nitin Rathi, has been found guilty and that departmental and legal action will soon be initated against him. “We have received several complaints against Rathi, an assistant in the Authority’s sports department. He had taken money from these buyers on the pretext of allotting them plots and had even generated fake documents to gain their confidence,” said Noida Authority’s additional CEO V K Panwar.

Rathi’s modus operandi was very convincing, officials said. He would introduce himself as a senior Authority official and lure his victims with fake documents, purportedly having signatures of top officials. In order to gain their confidence, he would ask his victims to deposit a part of the total cost of the plot in the Authority’s official bank account through a demand draft, and a substantial portion of the cost to him, in cash.

“Being an employee of Noida Authority, he was aware of the workings and document-drafting style. He generated fake documents of plots. Rathi knew that the Authority does not deal in cash. So, apart from taking a portion in cash, he asked his victims to deposit a part of the total cost of the plot in Noida Authority’s official bank account,” said Manoj Rai, the in-charge of the sports department.

But Rathi’s luck ran out when Authority officials discovered some mistakes he made in one of the fake plot allotment letters, issued to one of the buyers, purportedly by the land department, whereas such documents are issued by the planning department. TOI has a copy of the letter.

“We have called a meeting of the buyers on Friday. After examining the facts, the Authority will refund the money of those who had deposited in the account of the Noida Authority,” Rai said.

Some of the victims, who did not wish to be identified, alleged that Rathi has good connections with a few high-ranking officials of the Authority and also with some senior leaders of both Bahujan Samaj Party and the ruling Samajwadi Party.

Rathi had joined the Authority in October 2010 following the death of his father who was an employee in the Authority. He is now absconding.

He is the devil who raped me: Survivor in cab case

The cab driver, who allegedly raped a 27-year-old woman executive in December last year, was identified by the woman at Tis Hazari Courts Complex where she had gone to record her statement.

The chargesheet states that the woman got emotional when she saw the accused, Shiv Kumar Yadav, coming out of another court room and shouted “he is the devil who raped me”. Yadav was being taken for his custodial interrogation.

On Wednesday, the court fixed January 9 for hearing arguments on framing of charges in the case. Additional sessions judge Kaveri Baweja, who is presiding a special fast-track court set up to deal with cases of sexual offences against women, was informed by the police that one forensic report is awaited. In the chargesheet, police has relied on forensic evidence and placed on record the route of the car in which the offence was committed.

“The woman…Shiv Kumar Yadav ko dekhte huye pehchan liya aur shinakht karte hue chillai ki “yahi woh darinda hai jisne mera rape kiya hai” (the woman identified Shiv Kumar Yadav after spotting him and shouted he is the devil who raped me),” the chargesheet said.

The incident took place on December 8 when the woman went to record her statement before metropolitan magistrate Riya Guha and Yadav was coming out from another room presided by metropolitan magistrate Ambika Singh.

Thak-thak gang member arrested

A member of the thak-thak gang was arrested from Tolstoy Marg in the Barakhamba area on Wednesday. The gang is infamous for its unique modus operandi in which the members target a driver, knock on his car’s window, distract him by saying he had dropped a note and then take away his valuables kept on the rear seat.

Police said the arrested member, Kartik, and his accomplice, Santosh, had conned a man of his bank documents and laptop in the Barakhamba area on Monday.

On receiving a tip-off that the gang will con people in the same area again, cops were deployed in their civvies around Tolstoy Marg. On reaching the spot, Kartik and Santosh targeted a man who was sitting alone in his car, said a police official.

When Kartik saw no one near the car, he threw a 10-rupee note on the ground. As he knocked at the window of the car and asked the driver if it was his money, the cops came and caught him. Police said the duo knew the spot was not under CCTV surveillance.

“A team led by ACP Dhirender Pratap Singh and SHO Swadesh Prakash was formed after a tip-off and one of the members of the gang was caught red-handed,” said Vijay Singh, DCP (New Delhi district).

Murder charge supports Kerala hospital report

The conclusion of Delhi Police that Sunanda Pushkar was murdered has substantiated the discharge summary report of the Kerala hospital where she had undergone treatment in her last days.

The report from Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences here, a copy of which is with TOI, didn’t mention that she was taking Alprax, the anti-anxiety drug, or any bruise on her body when she was discharged from the hospital. It also doesn’t mention any symptom of depression.

Sunanda was admitted to the hospital on January 12 and discharged on January 14, three days ahead of her murder.

The discharge summary issued by the hospital also said Sunanda didn’t have any problem with physical aspects of blood circulation, which include the cardiac functions and peripheral vascular physiological characteristics.

“Currently, the patient is haemodynamically stable; discharging in stable condition,” the report issued by Dr Lissy Thomas, senior consultant, department of nephrology, said. “Sunanda has a history of lactose intolerance and the patient has a history of intermittent fever. The patient also has a history of fainting episodes. She had treatment for migraine at one time and had complaints of muscle pain and bone pain. Currently, the patient is not taking any medicine,” it said.

“Sunanda had a mammogram a year ago and it was normal. She had a history of using birth control pill for a longer period (more than 10 years). She is allergic to penicillin. At the time of admission, significant physical findings were some tenderness on the right lower quadrant of abdomen. Also, she had photosensitivity and small joint arthritis pain,” the report said.

Sunanda was also evaluated by cardiologist, infectious disease specialist, rheumatologist, medical gastroenterologist, neurologist, ENT specialist and dentist at the hospital. She was asked to have a follow-up in cardiology, rheumatology and neurology when she was discharged from the hospital.

Cops will send legal notice if you block an ambulance

Obstructing the path of an ambulance on the city roads will now attract legal action and a fine of Rs 2,000 no less.

“All a hospital has to do is report to us the vehicle number, date and time of violation and proof, if any,” special commissioner of police (traffic) Muktesh Chander said, after the department issued a circular on Tuesday. “We will verify the facts and issue legal notice if the charges are proved. Defaulters will have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000.” Chander said he would write to all hospitals and request them to share information about errant drivers.

Emergency vehicles — ambulances, fire engines and police patrol vehicles — have the overriding right of way over all motorized traffic on the extreme right lane of all major roads. Most ambulance drivers agree that the rule is rarely followed which leads to loss of precious time in transporting critically ill patients to hospital. Several die on the way after being held up in traffic.

Chander said the department had written to the state health department and the Union health ministry to sensitize ambulance drivers on the legal provisions. “The letter was sent on September 8 last year, but we did not get any feedback. So now we have decided to contact all hospitals directly,” he said.

Exactly how bad the situation is was revealed by a nugget in the data collated by the Centralised Accidents and Trauma Services (CATS) in Delhi: between May and December last year, at least 26 women had to deliver their babies in the ambulance because they could not reach hospital in time. While most deliveries went off smoothly, thanks to the paramedical staff on board, TOI came across at least one case where the child died later due to complications during birth.

“It happened on August 22. My wife was in the seventh month of her pregnancy when she complained about labour pain. We called for an ambulance around 5am to rush her to Safdarjung Hospital. But she had to delivery midway,” said Ritesh Kumar, a resident of Lal Kuan near Okhla. He said the child died later at the hospital due to complications. Kumar, a tailor, said the ambulance did not have adequate equipment, including ventilator support.

High Court allows jail inmates to have sex with their partners

In a historic verdict, the Punjab and Haryana high court has allowed jail inmates to have sex with their partners as long as they are married and want to have a child. The court, in an order made public on Tuesday, held that the right of convicts and jail inmates to have conjugal visits or artificial insemination for progeny was a fundamental right.

Justice Surya Kant of the high court has passed these orders while disposing of a petition filed by a couple – Jasvir Singh and Sonia – who are currently lodged in the Central Jail, Patiala. They were awarded the death penalty by a trial court for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old boy of a rich Hoshiarpur family for a hefty ransom.

The duo had sought permission to stay together and resume their conjugal life for the sake of progeny. They wanted the court to order the jail authorities to make the necessary arrangements in this regard.

Jasvir had pleaded that he is the only son of his parents and that they had been arrested in the case within eight months of their marriage. The petitioners claim that their demand is not for personal sexual gratification.

The court however denied Jasvir’s plea considering the heinous nature of the crime committed, but enlarged the scope of the petition in larger public interest. The judge held that right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right of convicts and jail inmates to have conjugal visits or artificial insemination as an alternative.

READ ALSO: Conjugal visits in Punjab jails soon?

“A society which is currently involved in academic and intellectual debates on ‘gay-rights’ or the recognition of ‘third-gender’, cannot shy away nor can it keep concealed under the carpet the pragmatic concept of conjugal visits of the jail inmates,” the court observed. “To say it differently, time has come and before it is too late, the stake-holders must sit together and deliberate upon this crucial subject and take a holistic view.”

The court, however, held that these rights were to be regulated by law and were the sole prerogative of the state. For this, the court ordered the constitution of a jail reforms committee to be headed by a retired high court judge. The committee would formulate a scheme for creation of an environment for conjugal and family visits in jail. It will identify categories of inmates entitled to such visits.

Other members shall include a social scientist and experts in jail reforms and prison management.

READ ALSO: Why can’t prisoners have sex in jails, court asks Maharashtra govt

The reforms committee will also determine is couples, where both the husband and wife have been jailed should, as a matter of policy, be included in such a list. The decision would be taken keeping in view the risk to security, adverse social impact and multiple disadvantages to their child;

Committee has to make its recommendations within one year after visiting the major jail premises.

What the court said

* Right to procreation survives incarceration. Such a right covered by ambit of Article 21 of Constitution read with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

* The penological interest of the state ought to permit creation of facilities for the exercise of right to procreation during incarceration, may be in a phased manner, as there is no inherent conflict between the right to procreate and incarceration. However, the same is subject to reasonable restrictions, social order and security concerns.

Brain-dead Delhi youth saves lives

A 24-year-old boy who was declared brain-dead at AIIMS trauma centre after suffering severe head injuries in a road accident last week, gave away gift of life to at least five people, including a 10-year-old girl suffering from heart failure.

The girl who had been admitted to the Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgery(CTVS) ward for a month was diagnosed with a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy.

According to Dr Balram Airan, chief of CTVS at AIIMS, the heart transplant lasted through the night. “We had to realign blood vessels of the 10-year-old to correct the mismatch in size of the blood vessels since the donor was an adult,” he said.

The donor, 24-year-old Dharmendra Yadav from Sangam Vihar, suffered a road accident on December 29 and four days later, he was declared brain-dead at AIIMS. Doctors said his relatives agreed to donate his organs, and already he has saved five lives in the new year, with his cornea and kidneys transplanted at AIIMS and liver sent to Delhi government’s Institute of Liver and Billiary Sciences, where it was divided between two patients.

Dr M C Misra, director, AIIMS lauded the efforts of the organ retrieval team and the surgeons over this feat. “Last year, AIIMS received only two cadaver donations against an average of 10-12 cadaver donations each year. In 2013, there were 80 cases of brain dead persons and the conversion rate was 12. Last year, however, against 60 brain dead cases there were only two conversions. This year we are hoping to see better conversion rate,” he said.

Brain death means irreversible loss of brain functions which has to be certified by a team of experts as per the law. Once a patient is declared brain-dead, more than 34 different organs and tissues can be harvested including heart, kidney, lung, liver and pancreas among others.

Rape accused fires at self to trap girl’s kin

A man accused of raping a minor fired at himself in a bid to implicate the survivor’s brother in a false case. The incident was reported from Mangolpuri on Sunday. The girl was gang-raped by four in 2012.

Two of the rape accused Sanjay Kumar, 23, and Sandeep, 22, had gone to the survivor’s house at JJ colony and threatened her brother to withdraw the case against them. The duo also thrashed him. The girl’s family said Sanjay carried a gun and threatened to shoot them. When her brother refused to relent, Sanjay shot himself in arm.

“He kept smiling and told us that he would implicate me and even tried to thrust the gun into my hand,” the girl’s brother said. Sandeep called police immediately and when they arrived, he pointed at the survivor’s brother saying he attacked Sanjay in order to take revenge.

Police detained the girl’s brother and admitted Sanjay to a hospital. They grew suspicious when his statement was found to be different from Sandeep’s. Later, Sanjay admitted to the crime. The family of the girl said Sanjay, Sandeep, Kuldeep and Joginder had gang-raped her when she was 16 years old. They were arrested after which Kuldeep and Joginder were found guilty and sent to jail. Sanjay and Sandeep managed to get out on bail and started putting pressure on the family to reach a compromise.

No conclusive data on drug abuse: Punjab health dept

Punjab health department on Sunday admitted that there was no conclusive data available about the prevalence of drug abuse in the state. Contesting the much-publicized estimate that 70% of youth in the state were hooked to drugs, it was pointed out that the available studies either had wide variability or did not cover the entire state.

Punjab government has now taken up the matter with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to sanction funds for the survey that has already been sanctioned for Punjab but has not started for over a year.

Dr Ajit Awasthi Professor Department of Psychiatry PGI, giving details of Punjab’s drive against drugs, said the figure about 70 % addiction was wrongly interpreted while other studies conducted by departments of psychiatry has wide variability.

Punjab doesn’t have a clear idea about the number of drug addicts in the state as the survey by Indian Council of Medical Research never materialized, last year Punjab has roped in United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for such a survey but the findings are still not in sight.

The only available study conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) had a rather small sample size of 600 with 150 respondents from each district with 75 from a village and 75 from a city.

The survey had claimed that those among the drug addicts, 75.8 % were in the age group of 16-35 year age group and they included 3% who were six to 10 years old. A total of 85.6 % of the addicts were matriculates while agriculturists (37%) and labourers (27.5%) made the other big groups.

Honour killing in Hoshiarpur: Young couple murdered by girl’s family

The Punjab police failure to provide security to a newly-married dalit couple despite directions from the Punjab and Haryana high court led to a gory end for the young couple on Sunday evening, when they were lynched allegedly by the girl’s relatives.

Police officials investigating the case said it was a case of “honour killing”.

The couple – Sandeep (22) and Khushboo (20) — were allegedly attacked by four-five masked men with swords and other sharp-edged weapons at the house of the boy’s family at Mugowal village near Mahilpur town in Hoshiarpur district. The attackers first targeted Khushboo and later lynched Sandeep, his family members told police.

While Sandeep died on the spot, Khushboo was taken to a hospital in Mahilpur, where she succumbed to her injuries. Sandeep’s father, Parkash, who tried to save his son, was also brutally attacked. He was admitted to the civil hospital in Hoshiarpur and his condition is said to be critical.

Police have registered a case of murder against the girl’s family members following a complaint filed by the boy’s relatives.

The couple, who were neighbours and belonged to Adi-Dharmi community, had eloped and got married about three months back against the wishes of the girl’s family. Apprehending threat to their lives after their marriage, the couple had approached the high court for protection. The court had directed police to provide them protection and the couple had approached police in Hoshiarpur district. However, police did not provide them any security and let them go back to their village despite threats from the girl’s side.

Following the threats, they left the village and stayed with a friend in Mohali town near Chandigarh. The couple had returned to the village only a few days back.

Sandeep’s mother Udham Kaur told police that the mask of one assailant, who was later identified as the girl’s father Sodhi Ram, came off during the attack. Kaur claimed she recognized him.

Hoshiarpur district police chief Rajjit Singh Hundal said the matter was being investigated, and claimed that the couple had refused to take police protection.

Pakistani shelling kills Jammu woman, border residents shifted

A woman was killed in cross-border firing along the India-Pakistan border near Jammu on Saturday.

Officials identified the deceased as Toshi Devi, who was in her 30s. She was killed while her 10-year-old son was wounded when a mortar hit their house at Mangu Chak in Samba as Pakistani Rangers targeted Indian border posts near Jammu.

Over a dozen were wounded in the cross-border firing, which forced border residents to leave for safer areas.

Pakistani Rangers had fired on Indian posts in Samba and Kathua on Friday night as well. “They targeted the Indian posts and forward villages using mortar shelling, small arms and automatic weapons on Saturday,” said a police source.

READ ALSO: Sushma Swaraj trashes Sartaj Aziz’s ‘white flag’ claims

Authorities have launched a rescue operation in Kathua sector and opened relief camps for displaced border residents in Hiranagar and Marheen.

“We are on the job to save people and have setup six relief camps at safer places,” said Kathua deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary. “At least 1,181 people have been evacuated from the forward areas to these camps.”

A villager shows a mortar shell after firing from the Pakistani side at Village Bainglad in Samba district, some 58km from Jammu, on January 3, 2014. (PTI photo)

Samba senior superintendent of police Anil Magotra said buses have been kept ready for evacuation of border residents to safer areas.

Samba deputy commissioner Mubarak Singh described the situation along the border as tense and added they have issued advisories to residents asking them to shift.

READ ALSO: Will speak in language India understands, Pak says

“Adequate arrangements have been made to accommodate the displaced people. So far some 500 people have been shifted to camps. We have pressed buses into service to ferry villagers to the safer locations in Samba.”

The escalation in border tensions come a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz wrote to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj protesting killing of their soldiers in BSF firing on December 31.

The BSF maintained the two were killed in retaliation to the killing of one of its jawans in Samba.

READ ALSO: 8 latest developments on Pakistani shelling

A villager shows the damage at the ceiling of his house after firing from the Pakistani side at Village Bainglad in Samba district, some 58km from Jammu, on January 3, 2014. (PTI photo)

Pakistan foreign office in a separate statement claimed the BSF had invited Pakistani Rangers for a flag meeting, but “greeted the unsuspecting soldiers with a volley of unprovoked fire, causing severe injuries to two soldiers”. The two later died.

Border tensions had forced at least 33,000 people to migrate to safer areas from 113 border villages in October last year.

READ ALSO:
Infiltration bid by 9 terror groups before Obama trip
Pakistan betraying India’s hand of friendship, Rajnath says

A 2003 India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement held for many years allowing border residents to go about their business as usual. But the pact has been violated repeatedly over the last few years.

Pakistan shells villages in J&K

1 of 7

Pakistani troops targeted villages and 13 border outposts in heavy shelling since January 2, 2015 night along the border in Kathua and Samba districts in J&K. (PTI photo)

Minor sexually assaulted in Delhi

A 14-year-old boy was apprehended on Saturday for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl south Delhi’s Rangpuri area. Medical examination also confirmed the boy had inserted a foreign object into her private parts. The incident took place on Friday when the boy came over to the girl’s house on the pretext of playing with her, police said.

Woman robbed, pushed out of train near Beach station

A woman commuter on a suburban train from Tambaram to beach was robbed and pushed out of the moving train near the RBI subway on Monday night. N Munishwari, 25, a software engineer, was alone in a women’s compartment when the robber attacked. She suffered a fracture of the left shoulder.

Police have launched a hunt for the man who snatched her gold chain and demanded her bag. When she refused to part with the bag, the man attacked her and pushed her out of the train which was then moving between Fort and Beach railway stations.

Munishwari, who works in a company on the MEPZ campus in Tambaram, told police that she noticed a man in his twenties in the women’s compartment when the train was moving slowly after the RBI subway. She was talking to her husband Nagarajan, who was waiting for her at the Beach station. The man suddenly lunged forward and snatched her 4.5-sovereign gold chain.

The robber then tried to snatch her bag. As she refused to give it, he dragged and pushed her out of the train. Police said he may have jumped off the train and escaped with the chain before the train reached the Beach station. Passengers of another train noticed the woman by the track. Some of them took her to the Beach station, where her husband, who works in a company in Parrys, was waiting. She is undergoing treatment at Stanley Medical College Hospital.

Superintendent of police, railways, P Vijayakumar and other senior officers visited the spot. Egmore railway police have registered a case.

Uber rape case: Delhi court to pronounce judgment on Tuesday

New Delhi:- A Delhi court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its judgment in the case in which a Uber cab driver is facing trial for allegedly raping a 25-year-old woman executive in his taxi last year. 

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Additional sessions judge Kaveri Baweja had on October 7 reserved the verdict after concluding hearing final arguments from both the sides in the case. 

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of December 5 last year when the victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back to her house at Inderlok. 

Accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav was arrested on December 7, 2014 from Mathura and is currently in judicial custody. 

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had earlier said that an accused can be convicted on the basis of sole testimony of the victim if it is trustworthy. 

He had said there was sufficient evidence on record to hold Yadav guilty in the case and none of the 28 prosecution witnesses has spoken contrary to the police case. 

Advocate D K Mishra, appearing for Yadav, had argued that there were several contradictions in the prosecution’s story and the alleged victim’s version and false evidence was planted to implicate his client. 

He had also argued that the woman had made various improvements in her statements before the court and police. 

The Supreme Court had earlier set aside the Delhi High Court order allowing the accused to re-examine 13 prosecution witnesses, including the victim. 

The woman and the Delhi Police had moved the apex court against the high court order. The proceedings in the case were stayed by the apex court for six months from March 10 to September 10. 

The trial court has framed charges against Yadav under IPC for alleged offences of endangering a woman’s life while raping her, abducting with an intent to compel her for marriage and criminally intimidating and causing hurt. 

The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as “false”.

When police called me, I thought of committing suicide: Radhe Maa

As soon as we reach the bungalow in Borivli where Radhe Maa had been given the entire fifth floor by her follower, Sanjeev Gupta, we are asked to tie a handkerchief on our heads. When we asked why we should cover our heads, Radhe tells us, “This is not for me, but to pay respect to Devi Mata as this is her temple.”

Apart from music and dance, Radhe also has a penchant for the colour red, which is why she is always seen in the same colour. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

We enter her apartment to find her dressed in the usual red, seated on a chowki with her eyes shut, while bhajans played softly in the background. Here, she revealed how she wanted to commit suicide when she was called to the police station after multiple allegations against her came to light.

She told this paper how these controversies were just attempts to defame her, to get some cheap publicity at her cost. Nevertheless, she prayed that God would forgive her detractors and help them find direction.

On her fame

Q. How did you become Radhe Maa from Sukhwinder Kaur?

A. I got married at a very young age; I was 17 when my parents wanted me to settle down. After 2 and half years, my husband left me and our two sons, and went abroad. To fend for my sons and in-laws, I started stitching clothes for a living. It came to me naturally, and I never had to learn it from anyone. I also taught other women in my village to stitch, so they could earn a livelihood as well. Since childhood, I had always loved music; every time I heard music, I felt like I was in a trance. I would get lost in the music and my in-laws noticed this and felt that I had some kind of power in me. They took me to my guru, who took me under his wing and christened me Radhe Maa when he saw that I had divine powers within me. That is how I got the name.

Q. Do you think that you have divine powers? If yes, then when you did you realise this?

A. My guru taught me about my powers 27 years ago.

Q. Do you claim to be a god?

A. I have never claimed that I am God, but people see God in me and they come to me for blessings. I just tell them to have faith in God, and I guide them on how to live life without any moh or maya, and how to surrender totally to God.

On her beliefs

Q. Why do you worship Goddess Durga?

A. I want Devi Maa to give me a darshan; in fact, I have already met Devi Maa, but I cannot reveal anymore.

Q. Why do you always carry a trishul (trident)?

A. According to me, Devi Mata is within me, and that is why I carry a trishul, like Mata.

Q. You have advised followers against love marriage and said they must be like Sita if they want a husband like Ram, and vice versa. Then how is it okay for you, a married woman, to be hugged and carried in the arms of male strangers during satsangs?

A. I am not against love marriage. And I treat everyone as my child. My followers hug me because they think of me as their mother.

Q. People have questioned why you dance to Western songs when you are a follower of the Devi.

A. Since childhood, I have always had the urge to dance. Whenever I hear music — it does not matter what kind of music it is — I start dancing automatically. I don’t know what makes me do so.

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Courting celebrity?

Q. There are rumours that you rejected an offer to appear on the television show, Bigg Boss. Were you concerned that appearing on the reality show would expose you?

A. I don’t know what Bigg Boss is. I will never go to any reality show and no one has ever approached me for it. I have not seen any such programme, and neither am I interested, so the question of me appearing on such a show does not arise.

Q. Have you ever had aspirations of becoming a Bollywood actress?

A. I have never thought about it. I don’t even watch movies or TV; it has been 27 years since I last watched a film.

On her looks

Q. You used to wear western attire earlier, but now you have started wearing Indian clothes. What is the reason behind this?

A. Before marriage and until two years after marriage, I used to wear western clothes. I was young and beautiful, and loved wearing western dresses. But after I got guruji’s blessings and started worshipping the Devi, I changed my attire and started wearing simple clothes.

Q. You continue to wear jewellery and make-up; is this an expression of your style?

A. These days, I don’t wear make-up or jewellery by my own wish. It’s all done on the request of my followers. They want me to wear jewellery and make-up so that I look like Devi Mata.

Q. You are 50 years old; how is it that you look so young?

A. Really? I look young? I do yoga and pooja of Devi Maa. This could be the reason.

Q. Do you feel bad when people older than you, even senior citizens, call you Maa?

A. I no longer think about age; I consider everybody as my children.

Q. Why do you always wear red clothes?

A. I have always loved the colour red, so I wear it all the time. I also sleep on red bed sheets.

On her riches

Q. There have been allegations that you transformed into Radhe Maa to make easy money, since people are very emotional and giving when it comes to religion. Please comment.

A. I have never asked anyone to come to me. I have never forced anyone to give me anything. I am a follower of Devi Maa, which is what I have always said. People come to me for blessings. People come to me by their own wish. If they have faith that I have divine powers, then where is my fault? I believe in giving, and not taking.

Q. People claim you are worth R400 crore. What do you have to say about this?

A. Please tell these people to give me just R10 crore out of this, and they can have the rest. All I have is Rs 2 crore, which includes my property in Delhi, my jewellery and all my earnings in the last 25 years.

Q. You reportedly spend a few lakh rupees each day. What do you spend on?

A. How much ever people give to me, I pass on to the needy.

Q. There are allegations that when you are called for a chowki, you demand a lot of money, and your follower, Talli Baba collects this money on your behalf.

A. I don’t charge any money from my bhakts when they call me to lead the pooja. These allegations are baseless. There are many followers of mine who call me for chowki, and every year, there is one chowki on a large scale that my followers organise. But there have never been any demands from me.

Q. Why do you live with the Gupta family?

A. I have 50 such bhakts all over the world, who have kept aside a room for me in their homes. I can live with any of them. I met the Gupta family when I was visiting one of my followers in Mumbai. Since then, the whole family follows me everywhere, so I live with them now. Yeh pura sansar mera parivar hai, aur mein sab se pyar karti hu. Aaj tak maine kisi se kuch nahi manga, aur mere paas kuch nahi hai.

On recent controversies

Q. What do you think about the recent controversy in which a woman from Kandivli filed a complaint against you in a dowry case?

A. This case is in the court. The truth will be in front of everyone very soon. I came to know later that the complainant had once come to my chowki. I don’t know anything else about her.

Q. One of your former followers, television celebrity Dolly Bindra has alleged that you asked her to have sex with one of your followers (Talli Baba). What is your response to this allegation?

A. Talli Baba is my follower and he has been living with me since he was 6. He has been like my son these past 23 years. Those who make such allegations, have a corrupt mind. Dolly Bindra had written to me about her problems regarding family and money. I just told her to have faith in God. Whenever and whatever my bhakts would give me, she wanted for herself. I would just give it to her. All this started when she took a loan of R5.5 lakh from my bhakt, Sanjeev Gupta, for some court matter. When he asked her to return the money, she began to accuse me of all these things..

Q. There have been other allegations that you run a sex racket.

A. What is a sex racket? Whenever a chowki (ritual in which Radhe leads a pooja of Devi Mata) is done, we have permissions from the police. I really don’t know why these three to four people have made such allegations. Whenever I am alone, I am submerged in prayers to the Devi.

Q. Arshi Khan, a model, also alleged that you tried to force her into a sex racket?

A. Arshi Khan? Who is she? I really don’t know. I don’t remember any Arshi Khan attending my programmes. When it comes to the issue of a sex racket, I have never thought of doing such bad things in my life. Those people making these allegations are using my name for cheap publicity. They should do something good instead; I pray to god that they find some guidance.

Q. There have also been allegations that a farmer’s family from Gujarat committed suicide after they sold their property and paid a huge amount of money to you, in hopes of getting rich.

A. I don’t know any farmers; they had donated the money to another sant, and even the court has given its judgement on this matter. I really don’t know why this complaint was registered by a particular gentleman whom I have never even met.

Q. Tell us how you learnt about all these complaints against you.

A. When police summoned me, a follower of mine informed me that I would have to go to the police station. I was shocked to hear this and started wondering what bad had I done which led to this. I thought of committing suicide, then realised that if I was wrong, I should be ready to face punishment. As for those who have made these allegations, God should give them blessings and a bright future. (In tears) I am most hurt by Dolly Bindra. I tried hard to make her good. She would always scream in between my programmes and use foul language. Whatever my followers gave me, she wanted to take. I would give it to her in the hope that she would become a good human being. But one day, she made me cry so much that I considered committing suicide just because of the torture. She wanted all the attention for herself, she wanted to become Radhe Maa.

Q. Sources have alleged that they have seen evidence of wrongdoings on your laptop.

A. I don’t use mobile or any laptops; I don’t know how to use these new-age digital things.

Q. There have been allegations Chhoti Maa was also involved in the same cases. Who is she?

A. She is a follower of mine. Her parents stay abroad but she chooses to be with me. It’s because of her love for me she wants to do seva. It’s her choice.

Q. In 2012, you were bestowed with the title of Mahamandaleshwar (high priest/ priestess) by the Juna Akhara, a prominent Shaivite sect of ascetics. This title was controversial in itself, and your former follower Surinder Mittal has alleged that the title was granted only after several high-ranking ascetics were bribed. What do you have to say to this?

A. After the recent controversies, people are making more allegations against me. The title was given to me by 200 sadhus who saw my popularity and how many followers I have. Mittal was one of my followers. His allegations are false.

Beggar held for touching woman commuter, obscene remark in Mumbai

A 75-year-old beggar was arrested by the Wadala Government Railway Police (GRP) on Tuesday after a woman commuter complained that he had repeatedly touched her and made an obscene remark. The incident took place at King’s Circle station around 4.25pm. 

The woman commuter was seated on a bench at the station, waiting for a train to arrive. The accused, Gangaram Nikhalje, was asking for alms from passengers. He came up to the woman and touched her repeatedly, asking for money. When she did not respond, he passed an obscene comment. The woman was taken aback and approached the station manager for help. He summoned the GRP who took Nikhalje into custody. He was hauled to the Wadala GRP outpost where he was booked for molestation. He will be produced before a railway court on Wednesday.

Youth throws pregnant girlfriend off Nahargarh, rescued

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According to police, the victim was four months into pregnancy and didn’t want to abort the fetus. So she was pressuring the accused to marry her. However, the accused was not ready for the marriage due to which he hatched a conspiracy to get rid of her. She is undergoing treatment in SMS Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). The doctors are concerned about the child’s safety.

ACP, Amber, Anil Chauhan told FAC that the accused, Narendra Kumar, is a vegetable vender and resident of Gandhi Colony in Nahargarh area. “The girl works at a beauty parlour in Bais Godown and stays in a rented accommodation in the same neighborhood where Narendra lives. She hails from Tonk district,” said Chauhan.

Chauhan said Narendra and the girl developed a relationship nearly one-and-a-half years ago. “Narendra kept the girl in the dark by promising to marry her. She got pregnant. Fearing social backlash, she started pushing Narendra to get married quickly, but Narendra kept postponing,” said the ACP.

On Thursday afternoon, Narendra took the girl to Kanak Vrindavan. “From there they hired an auto and went to Nahargarh hills. Narendra tried to persuade the girl to abort the child, but she protested and kept insisting that they should get married as soon as possible. The girl’s sister was due to visit her and she feared that her sister would know about the pregnancy,” said the officer.

Narendra had predetermined that if she didn’t agree to drop her plans for wedding, he would murder her. “As per the plan, she repeatedly hit her on her face with a stone, to the extent that it was severely damaged. He then dragged her around 50 feet from the hilltop and pushed her. Before pushing her, he again hit her to ensure that she died. As the girl had drifted into unconsciousness, he thought she had died and fled the spot after pushing her,” said the officer.

The girl, however, got stuck in bushes. “Narendra had pushed the girl at around 6 pm on Thursday. The girl, however, showed unprecedented struggle for survival. She kept lying uncouncious for hours. But when she gained consciousness in the morning, she dragged herself up the hills and kept shouting for help,” the officer said.

At around 7.30 am on Friday, some passers by informed the police following which she was rescued and rushed to SMS Hospital.

“Based on her statement to the police, we immediately sent out teams to search for Narendra. He was traced and arrested,” said the officer. The police have booked the accused under section 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (rape), 420 (fraud) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt).

DU students harness wind energy produced by Metro trains

A group of Delhi University students has discovered an innovative way of harnessing wind energy churned out by Metro trains to generate electricity.

The project, undertaken by Kalindi College, has also got the backing of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which allowed the students to install a turbine on trial basis at one of the underground metro stations.

“While standing at a metro station one day, the students realised that the wind energy produced in the tunnel by these fast moving trains gets wasted, and they decided to find out how it can be harnessed,” says Dr Punita Verma, Principal Investigator of the project.

The team, involving ten students of Physics and Computer Science departments, proposed setting up a turbine at an underground metro station to check if it can be successful in harnessing the wind.

DMRC officials found the project interesting and gave the nod to install a turbine at Chandni Chowk metro station.

“Without obstructing the operation, safety and security of Metro services, it was decided to put up turbine along the underground tracks at the mouth of tunnel where the maximum wind velocity available is 6.5 m/s.

“In the first phase, we installed a three-blade turbine and later a five-blade light rotor turbine with a cut-in speed of less than 1.5m/s. We connected it to a battery and measured the power it generates. We also discovered that different stations have different construction and the same turbines cannot be used at all the metro stations,” Verma said.

The project, which has was started by a different group of students in 2013, has received a grant of Rs 15 lakh from the university.

While the first phase involved the research work, the DMRC engineers were later roped in to test the feasibility, who have asked the team to develop the concept further.

“We are now working on different designs of the turbines whose size, shape and orientation will be customised according to the wind velocity and frequency of trains at different stations. Once the design is approved by DMRC, turbine firms will be approached to make these turbines,” Verma says.