Crime and Accident

Almora, October 03: At least eight persons were injured here today when a vehicle carrying them fell into a river in Gwalakot, 25 kilometres from here police said According to police sources, the injured were admitted at the Base Hospital here, where the condition of two passengers is said to be critical. The ill-fated vehicle was on its way to Haldwani from Tharali this morning police said and added that the reason of accident is yet to be ascertained.

—PTI–

Batala (Punjab), October 03: An unidentified man assaulted a cashier of the State Bank of Patiala in this north Punjab town Saturday afternoon and looted Rs.23 lakh from him, police said.

The Punjab Police immediately set up barricades around this town, 40 km from Amritsar, to nab the culprit.

A police officer said the bank staff was taking the money in a bag to put it in an automated teller machine (ATM). The cashier told the police that he was attacked from behind and the bag containing the money was taken away.

–Agencies

New Delhi, October 03: A crane toppled at a Delhi Metro construction site here Saturday injuring two people, police said.

The accident, blamed on “mechanical failure”, took place at the proposed Saket Metro station in south Delhi.

Although Metro officials claimed that no one was injured, police said two workers suffered injuries and were taken to a hospital.

“The incident took place at the Saket station. It appears that one crane developed a mechanical snag and lost its balance,” a Delhi Metro official told IANS.

Patna, October 03: Police were hunting Saturday for dozens of Maoist guerrillas who massacred 11 men and five children in a Bihar village Thursday midnight, triggering fears of a caste war.

Police said they were looking for 62 people who took part in the slaughter, including 24 from the same village where the killings occurred — Amausi in Khagaria district, about 200 km from here.

Additional Director General of Police Neelmani told IANS that while the identity of 37 of the culprits was known, 25 others were yet to be identified.

Kolkata, October 03: Suspected Maoist guerrillas triggered a landmine blast on the railway tracks in Purulia district of West Bengal early Saturday, police said.

The explosive went off on the railway tracks near Urma station after midnight, affecting train movement in the Adra-Chandil division.

The leftist ultras have called for a nationwide strike Saturday to protest the recent arrests of their leaders Kobad Ghandy and Chhatradhar Mahato and to demand their release.

Raipur, October 03: A daylong nationwide strike called by Maoists hit life in Chhattisgarh’s trouble-torn Bastar region Saturday as buses stopped plying and guerrillas blocked key roads even as thousands of security personnel were deployed in the area and in the state capital here.

Dozens of people were stranded at bus stands as no vehicles were ready to move into the interiors of the 40,000 sq km Bastar region that covers five districts of Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker and Bastar. Maoists had placed heavy logs at several places to block roads.

Thekkady (Kerala), October 03: The bodies of a four-year-old girl and her mother were found floating on Kerala’s Thekkady lake Saturday morning as navy divers resumed search operations, taking the toll from Wednesday’s boat capsize to 43, officials said.

The bodies were found quite near the accident site when the diving team comprising naval, police and forest personnel reached it to resume the search, said Idukki Superintendent of Police P.K. Kuttapayi.

The two had come to Kerala from Chennai.

Srinagar, October 02: A 13-year-old boy was killed and eight others, including two policemen, wounded in clashes that erupted in Baramulla in north Kashmir after the Friday prayers.

Police said the violence began in Baramulla town, 55 km from capital Srinagar, immediately after the Friday prayers when groups of youths took to the streets shouting anti-India slogans.

The youths later pelted stones at the police stations, prompting police to baton charge them.

However, when the stone throwing intensified, police began lobbing teargas to control the situation.

New Delhi, October 02: An alleged drug peddler with suspected ISI links, and issued a red corner notice by Interpol against him, was arrested in the national capital, police said on Friday. Sabir Ali, hailing UP’s Muzaffarnagar and residing in Lahore for the past two years, was caught by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from near Welcome Metro station around 3.30 pm yesterday, a senior police official said.

Srinagar, October 02: One person was injured Friday in a blast in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital.

The low intensity blast took place in Srinagar’s Malabagh locality, 10 km from the city centre Lal Chowk, injuring a municipality sweeper. Bashir Ahmed was taken to hospital for treatment.

Former chief minister and opposition Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and other politicians are scheduled to attend a marriage in a house near the blast site.

–IANS

Agartala, October 02: Militants from the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) are demanding a ransom of Rs.56,000 for three tribals they had abducted two days ago, police said here Friday.

The separatist guerrillas had Wednesday kidnapped six people from Raishabari village in Dhalai district, 180 km from here, but subsequently released three of them. The members of the village, police said, had not been paying the group the regular extortion money for the last six years.

Thiruvananthapuram, October 02: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Friday criticised the central government for not providing a military aircraft to transport the bodies of the victims of the Thekkady boat tragedy.

Achuthanandan’s response came in reply to a question put by reporters at a function.

Forty one tourists were killed when the double-decker fiberglass boat owned by the state-run Kerala Tourism Development Corporation capsized Wednesday evening in Thekkady lake at the Periyar wildlife sanctuary.

Chandigarh, October 02: A fresh controversy has erupted over the issue of custody of a 19-year-old mentally challenged pregnant rape victim between the administration of this union territory (UT) and a Delhi-based trust.

A meeting between the officials of the Chandigarh administration and the trust’s representatives, in New Delhi Thursday, to decide the custody of the woman, who is now in the 27th week of the pregnancy, ended without any agreement.

New Delhi, October 02: The Sharma-Jain family at Paschim Vihar here is yet to come to grips with the tragedy in which six of their 10 family members, who went on a holiday to Kerala, lost their lives when their boat capsized in the Mullaperiyar reservoir.

The victims are Sandhya Jain, her mother Vimla, her husband Pradeep Jain and daughter Shruti. Sandhya’s sister Sangeeta Sharma and her son Partha also lost their lives.

“The family left on a holiday a day before Dusshera,” recalled Barkha Goel, a neighbour of the Jain family.

Sitapur (UP), October 02: A brother-sister duo, aged 9 and 8 years respectively, were strangled to death after the girl was allegedly raped in Mahuwadana village, police said here.

Akash and the girl had gone out to play yesterday but did not return home till late in the evening following which the family members reported the matter to police, they said.

Their naked bodies were found late last night lying near a field, police said.

Superintendent of Police Ramkumar did not rule out the possibility of rape of the girl before both the children were strangulated.
–PTI

Lucknow, October 02: A rapist in an Uttar Pradesh village was punished in a strange way — the village heads asked the victim’s family to blacken his face and beat him with shoes till he faints or falls on the ground.

According to locals, the bizarre form of justice was delivered Thursday evening in Ghsainwalla village in Amroha, about 300 km from state capital Lucknow.

Sharif, 43, allegedly raped a 13-year-old girl residing in his neighbourhood Thursday morning. He was a resident of Peshthana area of Ghsainwalla village.

Khagaria, October 02: In a midnight attack, heavily-armed suspected Maoists swooped down on a village in Bihar’s Khagaria district and shot dead 16 villagers, mostly teenagers, after tying their hands and feet.

The gunmen pulled the victims out of their huts in Amosi Dharen Biara village, tied their hands and feet and fired at them, ADG Headquarters Neelmani said today.

“Around 100 people, suspected to be Maoists, armed with automatic weapons attacked the village and fired indiscriminately late last night,” Inspector General (Operations) S K Bharadwaj said.

Patna, October 02: In the first ever carnage during the NDA regime led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, 16 people were gunned down by suspected Maoist cadres in a village in Bihar’s Khagaria district late last night, a top police official said today.

“Around 100 people, suspected to be Maoists, armed with automatic weapons attacked the village Amosi Bharen Diara and fired indiscriminately late last night, killing 11 men and 5 children on the spot,” Inspector General (Operations) S K Bharadwaj said.

Bhopal, October 01: Five people, including two women, were booked here for allegedly forcing a 16-year-old girl to drink acid after she refused to marry a boy of their choice, police said today.

Savitri, who had been living at her uncle Ram Prasad’s house in this Madhya Pradesh capital for the past one month, was being pressured by her uncle, aunt Sumta Bai and others to marry Kamlesh – a man related to Sumta.

When she refused, Kamlesh first tried to outrage her modesty and later she was beaten up and forced to drink acid, police said.

Mumbai, October 01: A 60-year-old man, who had allegedly locked up his wife and three daughters in a room for seven years fearing they would be raped if they ventured out, has been arrested.

“After preliminary investigations, we arrested the accused, Francis Gomes, late last night, for causing hurt to the victims and wrongfully confining them,” Thane police inspector Ashok Pawar said today.

The hapless women were rescued by police on September 29 with the help of an NGO from their second floor flat in Neelambha Cooperative Housing Society at Naigaon in neighbouring Thane district.

Thekkady, October 01: The toll in the Thekkady boat mishap climbed to 39 with eight more bodies being fished out today even as the Kerala government ordered a judicial inquiry into the tragedy.

The mishap occurred when the state-run double decker boat ‘Jalakanyaka’ carrying 74 tourists tilted after several tourists moved to one side on sighting elephants in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary on the banks of the lake yesterday.

A team of rescuers which included divers have extricated 39 bodies from the partly submerged boat, officials said.

New Delhi, October 01: For over seven years, three women, a mother and her two daughters, were allegedly locked up in a house with no electricity by the family patriarch.

The man allegedly chained the women to pieces of furniture in their Vasai home in Mumbai.

Neighbors and NGO workers were in a state of shock after seeing the women’s plight.

“When we rescued them, the condition of the house was deplorable. The stench was so strong that we couldn’t stand there even after covering our faces with handkerchief,” an NGO worker Gopal Krishnan said.

Chandigarh, October 01: A 30-year-old man jumped from the second floor of a house to escape after molesting a woman but only landed in a hospital bed with paralysed legs, police said here Thursday.

According to police, Harpreet Singh, an engineer, had entered the woman’s home in Sector 56 late Tuesday night and allegedly attempted to molest her. She raised an alarm.

Singh ran and jumped from the second floor only to fall on a car.

Lucknow, October 01: Five senior students of the law department in Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district allegedly ragged and beat up a fresher at gunpoint, following which he had to be taken to a hospital, police said Thursday.

The ragging took place Wednesday on the campus, where the senior students forced Dev Singh Bhadana to stand on a chair and perform objectionable acts. When Bhadana protested, the seniors beat him black and blue after holding him at gunpoint, police said.

Agartala , October 01: An eight-month-old baby, of bordering Chandipur village in North Tripura, died after an elephant wounded him severely with its tusks.

Police today said the child’s mother had brought him near the elephant yesterday to get the tusker’s ”blessings” but the animal instead gobbled up the infant and then spat out the victim within a few minutes.

The child sustained severe injuries and was immediately shifted to Rajib Gandhi Memorial Hospital at Kailashahar but he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.