1. 792 Percent Spike in Honour Killing Cases, UP Tops The List: Govt in Parliament
The country registered 251 honour killings last year against 28 in 2014, recording a big spike in murders carried out by people professing to be acting in defence of their family’s reputation, the government said in Parliament on Tuesday.
The 792% number jump reflects rigorous data collection on honour killing, which the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) started doing from January 2014. It also points to the widespread existence of the crime.
Most cases went unreported in the past or registered as crimes under murder.
The figures given out by junior home minister Hansraj Ahir in the Lok Sabha are from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
Uttar Pradesh, which registered a single case in 2014, topped the list the next year with 131 cases of murder with honour killing as the sole motive.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. Bathinda Dancer’s Murder: Orchestra Groups Take Out Protest March
Orchestra groups took out a candle light march in Bathinda on Tuesday, to protest the murder of Kulwinder Kaur, the dancer who was shot dead at a marriage function on Saturday night.
Manga Singh, owner of Jashn-e-Punjab orchestra group which was booked for the function at Aashriwad marriage palace where the incident took place, said, “The state government needs to look at our rights as well. This is an incident which has shocked all of us. We are artists working for our bread and butter and we too want dignity in our profession.”
Meanwhile, one of the suspects, Lucky Goyal, son of former SAD councillor Vijay Goyal, was arrested on Monday while his friend Sanjay Goyal, also a suspect, was arrested on Sunday night.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. Amend Law For Harsher Punishment For Rash Driving: SC to Centre
Holding that the existing two-year imprisonment for causing death due to rash and negligent driving as grossly inadequate, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to provide harsher punishment for the offence by amending the law.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy said that time had come to inject the fear of law among drivers who put the lives of pedestrians and other drivers at risk by their reckless and adventurous driving. It asked the Centre to take a stand on the issue within eight weeks.
The court asked attorney general Mukul Rohatgi to inform the government to look into the issue in proper perspective and take a decision to provide stringent punishment for rash and negligent driving causing death. The attorney told the bench that a bill was pending in Parliament and assured the court that he would inform the authority concerned about it.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. Surat Hooch Tragedy: Eight charged With Murder, Conspiracy
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has filed its first chargesheet in the Surat hooch tragedy that claimed over two dozen lives in October this year. The chargesheet has named eight accused, including three women, for conspiracy, murder and violation of various sections of the liquor prohibition law.
According to ATS officers, the chargesheet was filed before a Surat city and sessions court on Monday against Jitendra Chaudhary, his wife Padma, mother Shantaben, Rukmani Reddy, Dipak Pandit, Ramu Yadav, Kailash Tiwari and Manoj Verma.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (ATS) B M Desai, who is investigating the case, said the eight have been “charged with conspiracy, murder and also under Section 65 (A) of the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat amendment) Act that has provision for death penalty”.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. Fourth Mutilated Body Found in Delhi in Ten days; Man Held For Necrophilia
A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly violating the corpse of a woman in southeast Delhi’s Sunlight Colony area on Monday.
A passerby spotted Anil Kumar, a vagabond, in a compromising position with the body, whose face was battered and disfigured with a stone. He immediately called police.
Kumar’s mental condition is said to be unstable and a magistrate directed that he be taken for a thorough medical check-up. The man denied killing the woman.
Police registered a case of murder against unknown persons but charged Kumar with legal provisions that prevent people from having unnatural sex – necrophilia in this case.
The body is kept at the mortuary for identification, adding to the 43 unidentified corpses found across New Delhi in the past one week.
This is the fourth case of an abandoned, mutilated body found in the city in 10 days. The other three had been hacked and dumped in south Delhi, a mystery police were trying to unravel.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Congolese National Murder Case: Police Nabs Third Accused
The third accused in the murder of 29-year-old Congolese national Masonda Ketada Olivier, who was allegedly thrashed to death in south Delhi’s Kishangarh in May, has been arrested.
Mukesh Kumar Vishnoi was nabbed in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura on Tuesday based on a tip-off, said the police.
“We had information that he would be coming to Mathura from Jaipur by bus to meet someone. A trap was laid near New Bus Stand in Mathura, and the accused was arrested,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south-east) Romil Baaniya.
Between 2007 and 2013, Vishnoi worked in various private companies in Mumbai.
In 2014, he came to Delhi and fell into the company of a gang which was involved in cheating people online. In January, he was arrested by the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch in a cheating case, said Mr. Baaniya.
(Source: The Hindu)
7. Murder of Former MLA’s Nephew Remains a Mystery; Cops Clueless
A week on, the sensational murder RJD ex-MLA Mahesh Yadav's nephew Rajat at his Delha house remains shrouded in mystery. Adding to the mystery is the failure of the slain boy's mother to name any suspect.
The FIR was lodged on November 29. FSL experts, dog squad and finger print specialists visited the place of occurrence the following day to gather evidence.
The 22-year-old was alone in the house, and was found in a pool of blood with a bullet injury in the head by his mother, a schoolteacher, when she returned home in the evening.
If police sources are to be believed, Rajat's mother was on friendly terms with a neighbour, and Rajat did not approve this friendship.
Asked about the progress in the investigation of the case, DIG Saurav Kumar said he had directed the Gaya SSP to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to crack it. "I will find out if the SIT has been constituted and what follow-up actions have been taken," said the DIG.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. Woman Raped, Murdered at Vile Parle Residence in Mumbai
A 25-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and murdered at her residence in Vile Parle East early Tuesday morning. The victim, a physiotherapist, was found strangulated with a pair of jeans in her room and the place had been set on fire. Police are yet to make an arrest in the case.
Following the post-mortem report, Vile Parle police have registered a case under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 376 (punishment for rape), 377 (unnatural offences) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC.
The victim was found in a semi-clad condition and had suffered slight burns to the left side of her face due to the fire. However, there were no other clear signs of injury, an officer at Vile Parle station said. Vile Parle police believe the fire was started to erase evidence.
(Source: Indian Express)
9. Case Lodged Against Six Students With Fake Caste Certificates
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, an institute in south Mumbai, has registered a case against six students for applying on the basis of fake caste certificates for the scheduled castes/tribes (SC/ST) quota.
The police said that one of the accused is a son of a SoBo diamond merchant.
According to the police, the case was registered last week with the Marine Drive police station under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged) of the Indian Penal Code, after the certificates were sent to the IT department for verification.
“The IT department said that the certificates are forged, following which the students were immediately expelled from the college,” said an officer from the Marine Drive police station.
The police said that the admission cut offs were 99%, this year, and most aspirants had difficulties meeting the mark. The six accused met Ebraham Noorani, a fraud, who claimed to be an MBA graduate, and promised to get them admitted to the college.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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