Crime

Jeypore, April 04: At least seven jawans of the elite Special Operation Group (SOG) of Orissa Police, raised specially to fight Maoists, were feared killed, and 15 others injured, some of them critically, in a powerful landmine blast triggered by the Maoists at Mantriamba village under Baipariguda police station of Koraput district today.

Police said 22 jawans of the SOG were moving in a vehicle from Jeypore towards Malkangiri to clear the road for the movement of BSF jawans to conduct anti-Maoist operation when the incident occurred, about eight km from Baipariguda.

Riyadh, April 04: Two Britons convicted of kissing in public had their one-month prison sentence upheld by a Dubai court today.

Ayman Najafi, 24, and Charlotte Adams, 25, were arrested by police in the Gulf resort last November after a woman complained they had been seen kissing on the mouth in a restaurant, breaching Dubai’s strict decency laws.

They were sentenced last month when a judge at Dubai’s Misdemeanours Court heard written evidence from a 38-year-old mother who complained to police.

Ranchi, April 04: Maoists guerrillas bombed a forest guest house in Jharkhand’s Latehar district early Sunday, police said.

Around 20 to 25 Maoists rebels raided the guest house, which was vacant at the time, at Matlong village, about 140 km from Ranchi, and later triggered the blast.

The guest house was badly damaged in the blast, the police said, adding that a pamphlet was recovered from the site, which claimed that the guerrillas targeted the guest house as it was used by security forces.
–IANS

Aligarh, April 4 (IANS) Many of the taxis hired by the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) office in the past decade for official reasons have turned out to be scooters and tractors, pointing to a massive fraud, a Right to Information Act activist has discovered.

Bimal Khemani, an RTI activist, claims to have uncovered a multi-crore rupee fraud in hiring taxis for official transport by BSNL authorities in Aligarh between 1997 and 2008. “It is a very curious case of embezzlement of funds by the BSNL authorities,” Khemani told IANS.

Mumbai, April 03: Mumbai Police inspector and “encounter (gunfight) specialist” Pradeep Sharma, who has been sacked, and another police officer, Pradeep Suryavanshi, were among over 20 people charge-sheeted Saturday by a special team probing the death of a gangster in a gun battle.

The charge-sheet, running into over 1,000 pages, was filed in the Andheri court by an official of the Bombay High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the death of Ramnarayan Gupta, suspected aide of absconding mafia don Chhota Rajan.

Raipur, April 03: As many as 23 percent of the weapons of police in Chhattisgarh, one of the Indian states worst affected by Maoist militancy, are obsolete, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report said.

“The police department had a total of 49,143 units of weapons, of which 11,232 units (23 percent) were obsolete such as .303 rifles, .410 muskets, .38 revolvers, .303 light machine guns (LMG) and grenade firing (GF) rifles, but were still in use,” the CAG said in a recently released report on the government of Chhattisgarh for the year ended March 31, 2009.

Bhubaneswar, April 03: In two separate incidents, three people were arrested Saturday for printing and circulating fake Indian currency notes in Orissa, police said.

In Sundergarh district, police arrested one person for printing fake notes and seized printing machines from him.

“We have seized the printers and about 300 counterfeit notes of different denominations from Trilochan Sahu,” said Deepak Kumar, the superintendent of police Sundergarh district.

In the other incident, two people were arrested in Keonjhar district for circulating fake Rs.500 notes.

New Delhi, April 03: Two minors were detained and their friend was arrested in connection with what could be a case of honour killing of a young man, who wanted to have a relationship with the sister of one of them, in the national capital, police said today.

The victim, Bunty (20), had proposed to the sister of one of the minors who along with his friends allegedly murdered him on March 16 in Anand Parbat area.

Bhubaneswar, April 03: Tightening noose around those allegedly involved in the multi-crore mining scam, the Orissa Police today arrested 48 people of as many private companies on the charge of smuggling iron ore worth Rs 54.40 crore.

“Those arrested belong to 48 companies engaged in transportation, loading of minerals and mining activities,” Keonjhar SP Asish Kumar Singh told PTI adding they were held on charges of smuggling minerals through trains.

Latur, April 03: In a shocking incident, a labourer allegedly axed his wife and son to death, and injured his daughter seriously before committing suicide today, police said.

A brick kiln worker, identified as Ram Kamble (45), of Deepjyot Nagar in Latur city attacked his wife Babita (30), his nine-year-old son Krishna and six-year-old daughter Rekha with an axe, Inspector Pradeep Kakade of the MIDC Latur police station said.

While Babita and Krishna died on the spot, seriously injured Rekha is undergoing treatment in a hospital, he said.

New Delhi, April 03: Two persons were seriously injured today after their car was hit by a truck here.

The incident happened early in the morning near Maurya Sheraton Hotel when they were travelling in a car towards India Gate. The truck hit their car, police said.

Pawan Kumar (22) and Deepak (23) sustained injuries as they were trapped in the car following the accident, police said.

They were rescued after police cut the vehicle by gas cutter. They were taken to RML Hospital where their condition is stated to be critical.

–Agencies

New Delhi, April 03: A minor fire broke out in a closed restaurant-cum-bar in central Delhi Saturday afternoon, fire officials said. No casualties were reported in the incident.

The incident took place around 2.10 p.m. at the Blue Star restaurant and bar near Minto Bridge. The restaurant and bar has been closed for the last few years.

“Rushing to the spot two fire tenders doused the flames within half-an-hour. The furniture kept at the premises had caught fire, but the reason for the fire is yet to be ascertained,” the fire official added.

—————-IANS

Ranchi, April 03:A Maoist rebel was shot dead in a gun battle with police in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district Saturday morning, police said.

The body of Sunil Gorai was recovered after the gunfight near Banporia village under Patmda police station of the district, around 160 km from Ranchi.

According to police, Gorai was commander of “Dalma Firing Squad” of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist).

——————IANS

Mau (Uttar Pradesh), April 03: A gangster wanted in over 20 criminal cases was Saturday gunned down in this Uttar Pradesh town by a team of the state police’s special task force (STF), police said.

Raja Chauhan, 35, who was wanted in several cases of murder, abduction, loot and other heinous crimes, was shot dead in Dakshintola town in Mau district, about 280 km from Lucknow.

Guwahati, April 03: A youth was killed and another injured in a bomb explosion in a police training firing range area in Assam’s Nagaon district today.

Kishna Gopal Hazarika (9) saw a bag in which the bomb was kept and took it to 21-year-old Phagu Bumij.

As the youth tried to open the bag, it exploded killing him on the spot while Krishna was injured, officials said.

The wounded was admitted to hospital.

Police are investigating as to how the bomb was left there.
–PTI

Pune, April 03: The main accused in the gangrape of a 25-year-old married woman was arrested as he tried to flee Pune early Saturday, police said.

Two of the three accused were nabbed early Friday. The police cracked the case within two hours by moving swiftly and using mobile tracking methods

The third accused Subhash Bhosale was nabbed Saturday as he was trying to flee Pune on the old Mumbai-Pune Highway around 2 a.m., Crime Branch Inspector of Hinjewadi police station N.S. Bhosale-Patil told IANS.

New Delhi, April 02: A major fire broke out at a shop in a busy market here Friday afternoon. No one was injured, officials said.

The fire broke out in a sari shop on Ajmal Khan Road in Karol Bagh around 2 p.m. “We rushed eight fire fighting tenders to douse the flames,” said an official of the Delhi Fire Services.

According to police, the reason behind the fire was an electrical short circuit.

“There is no report of casualty so far. We are assessing the damage caused to the shop,” said a police officer.
–IANS

Jammu, April 02: A government school teacher has been suspended by the Jammu and Kashmir government for allegedly raping a girl student in Udhampur district.

Noor Mohammad, a teacher of Government Higher Secondary School in Jakhed in Ramnagar tehsil of the district, has been suspended by Chief Education Officer of Udhampur, officials said today.

Noor had allegedly raped a class 12 student in the school premises and was arrested on March 31.
–PTI

Pune, April 02: In a shocking incident, a 25-year-old married woman was gang-raped by three persons after they offered her a lift in their car and took her to a desolate location, police said Friday. Two of the three accused have been arrested.

The victim was staying alone in Hinjewadi area, a suburb on the outskirts of the city, in a rented accommodation since the past fortnight.

Muzaffarnagar, April 02: A local court here today sentenced a man to ten years rigorous imprisonment for murdering his wife over dowry demand.

The Additional District Judge S K Banerji also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Pravesh after holding him guilty.

According to prosecution, Babli was strangulated to death by Pravesh at Budhana town in the district on September 1, 2008, for bringing insufficient dowry.
–PTI

New Delhi, April 02: Fire broke out on the fourth floor of a building near I.P. Bhavan at ITO in central Delhi, a fire official said Friday. Seven people have been rescued so far.

A fire department official said: “We received a call at around 11:45 a.m. about a fire in the Drum-Shaped Building at ITO.”

“We have rescued seven people till now,” the official added.

“Seventeen-eighteen fire tenders have been pressed into service,” he said.

The building is known to house many government offices.
–IANS

New Delhi, April 02: A slum fire in south Delhi’s Kishangarh area early Friday left three people injured, including a three-year-old girl. A similar fire in another south Delhi slum had left two children dead Thursday.

“Three people, including a three-year-old girl, were injured in a fire accident which took place in the slum clusters of Kishangarh in Mehrauli this morning,” a fire department official said.

The victims, Pappu and Seema, both 26, and three-year-old Priyanka were rushed to the Safdarjung hospital. Their injuries were, however, said to be not very grievous.

New Delhi, April 01: A court here today sentenced a man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for stabbing to death a woman last year, holding him guilty for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Convict Mahseh Singh, who was initially charged with the offence of murder, was convicted under milder penal provision as the court held that he did not intend to kill.

Jalandhar, April 01: From miles afar, they wanted their voices to be heard at the highest level as relatives of 17 Indians awarded death penalty by Sharjah’s Shariah court pleaded innocence by putting forward little arguments in their support.

Holding photographs of their dear ones — some as small as passport-size — they put across their side of the story saying those being framed are the sole bread earners for their families.

This was among the many heart-rending scenes at a press conference by Lok Bhalai Party chief B S Ramoowalia which was also attended by the relatives.

Jodhpur, April 01: An employee of the Income Tax department was today arrested here along with three other persons in a graft case.

DIG (ACB) Govind Gupta said Rajendra Singh Sisodia, a staff of the department, was arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 1.21 lakh from a jeweller Om Prakash Soni, threatening him with imposition of penalty if he did not pay the sum.

A trap was laid after Soni contacted the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Sisodia was arrested while taking the money from a mediator, the DIG alleged.