Crime and Accident

Gurgaon, October 18: A worker was critically injured and a vehicle was torched when two sections of the employees of Rico auto clashed with each other outside the premises of the auto component making company here this evening.

The clash erupted at around 7 pm when a group of company workers, who have been on strike for about a month demanding higher pay among other things, allegedly picked up a scuffle with another group of workers who have stayed away from the agitation, Gurgaon police Commissioner Surjit Singh Deswal said.

Lucknow, October 18: Two teenagers were killed and three others suffered burns in separate incidents related to bursting of crackers on Diwali, police said.

Shiva (16) was killed and one Yash (10) seriously injured when three fire cracker shops caught fire at Garhmukteshwar area in Ghaziabad last evening. Parts of burst crackers fell in the shops leading to the accident.

In Kaushalpuri area of Kanpur district, a teenager identified as Sonu (14) was killed when a cylinder exploded after a house caught fire from crackers stored in a room, police said.

Kolkata, October 18: Avik Chowdhury, a Bengal cricketer, was among six people injured in a car accident here Sunday. Chowdhury was in critical condition and on ventilator support in a private hospital after sustaining multiple injuries, a doctor said.

Five others in the car that hit a road divider on the eastern metropolitan bypass were also admitted to the hospital with various degrees of injuries. Four of them are in the intensive cardiac care unit (ICCU), said one of the attending doctors.

Ghaziabad, October 18: The death of the jailed prime accused in the multi-crore provident fund scam was shrouded in mystery today with a post-mortem unble to determine the probable cause, as his family demanded a CBI probe suspecting foul play.

43-year-old Ashuthosh Astana, the alleged brain behind the Rs 23 crore scam in which a number of judges of the higher and lower judiciary were allegedly involved, has been in jail since his arrest in January last year.

Kurukshetra, October 18: Police today arrested two gangsters wanted in over three dozen criminal cases including those of rape and murder in Punjab and Haryana.

Kuldeep Singh and Jasbir Singh were arrested after their motorcycle was intercepted by Pehova police but instead of stopping their vehicle they fired at the policemen, Kurukshetra SP K V Ramana told reporters here.

However, the policemen caught the duo after grappling with them for sometime, he said.

A country-made pistol, a live cartridge and a knife besides the motorcycle were recovered from their possession.

Tirunelveli (TN), October 18: An illegal arms manufacturing unit was unearthed today and one person arrested in this connection in Sankarankoil, 50 km from here, police said.

A special team led by district Superintendent of Police Ashra Garg raided the factory and arrested Natarajan allegedly with several country made weapons, knives and ammunition.

Natarajan confessed to his involvement in the illegal trade for past five years, police claimed.

Kurukshetra, October 18: A eight-year-old boy drowned at a pond, where he had gone to have a dip today, police said.

He was rushed to civil hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

His body was sent for postmortem after which it was handed over to his parents.

–Agencies

Kapurthala, October 18: Police today resorted to mild lathi charge to dispel the agitating mob, which was trying to ransack some shops following a clash between two groups here.

The agitating mob was also protested against tearing of a poster of Bhagwan Valmiki by some miscreants and staged a dharna on Kapurthala-Sultanpurlodhi road and blocked the vehicular traffic for more than one hour, police said.

Chandigarh, October 18: Nearly 100 cases of burns and other injuries, sustained during Diwali celebrations Saturday evening, were reported in Chandigarh hospitals, officials said Sunday.

“Around 35 cases were reported in the eye department here. Of these, 12 had sustained complete damage to their eyes,” said an official of the eye department of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here.

Over 50 cases of burns and other injuries were reported in the Government Hospital here in Sector 16, whereas over 20 patients came to Government Hospital in Sector 32.

Jhajjar, October 18: A widow and her two minor sons committed suicide in a village in this Haryana district here Sunday, police said.

According to the police, Suman, who was in her mid-30s, and her two sons Yogesh and Parveen consumed some poisonous substance at their home and later died in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science (PGIMS) in Rohtak. The family were residents of Nona-Majra village of this district.

Ara (Bihar), October 18: Thirty people were taken ill, 12 of them seriously, after eating ‘prasad’ at a Lakshmi Puja at Banauli village in Bihar’s Bhojpur district in Bihar today, police said.

The 12 people seriously ill were rushed to Ara sadar hospital.

Police said that a team of doctors had been sent to the affected village to ascertain the cause of the food poisoning.

–Agencies

Tikamgarh (MP), October 18: Following a court order, the chief of a civic body today surrendered before the police at Prithvipur here in connection with a BJP leader’s murder case, in which a Congress MLA is one of the accused.

Prithvipur Nagar panchayat president, Sanjay Kashgar, was arrested after he surrendered before police in connection with the murder of BJP leader and Chandrapura village Sarpanch, Ambika Prasad Babele, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) S K Pandey told PTI.

Ahmedabad, October 18: A 22-year-old woman died of swine flu in Surat today taking the number of fatalities due to the disease to 39 in the state.

Ragini Arun Singh, who was tested positive for swine flu earlier, died at a municipal-run hospital in Surat, officials of the Health Department said.

A total 252 confirmed cases of H1N1 infection have been reported from the state so far, the officials said.

Of the 39 deaths, over 20 were reported from Surat alone.

–Agencies

Malda (WB), October 18: A class 11 student who was abducted by a dacoit near the border with Bihar in Malda district of West Bengal has still not been traced, police said today.

Payel Khatun was returning from her private tuition at Pukuria village, some distance from her home, after school on Thursday when she was waylaid by some persons and taken away, police said.

Late at night a ransom of Rs three lakh was demanded over phone from her father Sheikh Rafiql who has landed property worth lakhs, they said.

Bangalore, October 18: Police today said it was still awaiting the forensic science laboratory results on the bag seized from a cricketer at the Chinnaswamy stadium on the suspicion that it may have contained residue of explosive materials.

“We are still awaiting the results,” a top official said.

The police detained 21-year-old Parvez Rasool, a 21-year-old cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir yesterday after a metal detector found traces of some explosives in his bag.

However, a search of the bag yielded nothing.

Mohali, October 18:A 42-year-old resident of Chandigarh was shot dead Sunday allegedly by his cousins in Kurali town of Punjab over a property dispute, police said.

“Raj Kumar is a resident of Maloya village in Chandigarh. He had some old dispute over a piece of land with his cousins. His cousins shot him dead after a brief altercation,” Manjit Singh, a police official told IANS.

Raj Kumar had gone to Kurali to visit a gurdwara. The attackers were identified as Gurpreet Singh and Makhan Singh.

New Delhi, October 18:At least 267 incidents of fire were reported in the national capital during Diwali, but there were no major cases among them, a fire service official said Sunday.

“We received 207 fire calls till Saturday midnight. We received 60 calls till 6 a.m. (Sunday). They were mainly Diwali-related. The number is more than double the number we receive on a normal day,” a fire service official told IANS.

He said on an average the fire service department gets 90 cases.

Ghaziabad, October 18: Arrested court official Ashutosh Asthana, the key to the multi-crore provident fund (PF) scam in which some judges of the higher judiciary were also named, has died at Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad, police said on Sunday.

Asthana, a district court middle-rung officer, who earned notoriety on account of embezzlement of the provident fund of the Ghaziabad district court staff died on Saturday.

New Delhi, October 18: As people celebrated Diwali Saturday, the national capital reported as many as 207 cases of fire incidents. But there were no major cases among them, Delhi Fire Service said Sunday.

“We received 207 fire calls and they were mainly Diwali related. The number is more than double the number we receive in a normal day,” a fire service official told IANS.

He said in a normal day they receive around 90 cases.

“After midnight of Diwali we received 62 cases,” the official said adding that this post-midnight number is also much higher than a normal night.

Ranchi, October 18: A top Maoist commander was killed in a gun battle with a rival outfit in Latehar district of Jharkhand, police said Sunday.

According to police, a gun battle between two Maoist groups – Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC) and Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) – took place in a jungle area near Bigrahganj village of Latehar district late Saturday night.

Pradeep Ganju, a top ranking Maoist commander of JPC, was killed in the gun battle that lasted nearly two hours.

Police reached the site, around 145 km from Ranchi, Sunday morning.

Mumbai, OCtober 18: Six firefighters working with the city fire services died due to suffocation after they got stuck in a lift in a housing complex, where they had gone to put out a blaze in the wee hours of Sunday.

The firemen were among the team which went to attend to a call from the Tarangam housing society in Vartak Nagar locality of the city, police said.

Rajkot, October 18: A woman was dragged semi nude by a group of women over a personal dispute in Lakhtar taluka of Surendranagar district, police said today.

The incident took place in the Vitthalpura village of Lakhtar taluka a couple of days ago when a woman and her husband had a scuffle with another family in the same village over some personal dispute, they said.

“A group of 12-15 women beat up the woman and tore her clothes. They then dragged her across the village semi-naked,” Surendranagar superintendent of police Ashok Kumar told PTI.

Bangalore, October 18: While the Champions League T20 matches were supposed to begin at 4 pm on Saturday, ‘action’ at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here began much earlier.

The police cordoned off the KSCA Club House before detaining a Jammu & Kashmir U-22 player after explosive detectors at the stadium indicated the presence of some explosives in his bag. The player, however, was released after nothing was found in his possession.

Mumbai, October 18: During the shooting of Knockout last evening, a lightman fell from a height and was injured badly. Sanjay Dutt and producer Sohail Maklai rushed Purushottam, the lightman, to Lilavati Hospital.

The reason for him falling is not yet known but it is probably because he got electrocuted. His head was severely injured but he was taken to the hospital immediately. Some CT scans were taken. He is now alright and out of danger; he has just received many stitches on his head. He has now been shifted to Nanavati hospital.

–Agencies–

Mumbai, October 17: Police today claimed to have cracked a case of theft that took place at actress Kareena Kapoor”s suburban Khar residence with the arrest of her three domestic helps, who have confessed to the crime.

A pearl set and a ring collectively worth Rs 41,000 and Rs 1.53 lakh in cash were recovered from them, police said.