1. Seven Held for Assaulting Dalit Men in Rajasthan; Congress, BJP Trade Barbs
Seven people were arrested on charges of torturing two young Dalit men for allegedly stealing Rs 50,000 from a motorcycle service centre in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district on 16 February, the police said on Thursday, 20 February, a day after videos of their ordeal went viral on social media.
In the videos, the manager and six other employees of the service centre can be seen thrashing the two with rubber fan belts and then pinning down one of them. One of them is then stripped and violated with a screw driver laced with petrol. One of the accused filmed the torture on his mobile phone.
On Wednesday, the police booked Hanuman Singh (39), Bhim Singh (43), Chel Singh (42), Raghuveer Singh (19), Rahmat Ullah (19) and Chatar Singh (21) and one more person under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), section 342 (wrongful confinement), section 143 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code and different sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. Surat Women Clerks Forced to Stand Naked for Med Test
Barely a week after 68 students of a Bhuj girls’ college were lined up and forced to strip to prove they weren’t menstruating, female trainee clerks of the Surat Municipal Corporation were on Thursday, 20 February, allegedly made to stand naked at a state-run hospital for a long time while lady doctors subjected them to a gynaecological finger test and asked personal questions.
According to a complaint lodged by the SMC Employees Union with the municipal commissioner, around 100 employees got a rude shock when they reached the Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education and Research for their mandatory fitness test.
“Female employees were forced to stand naked together in groups of around 10 in a room where they did not have any privacy. The door was not properly closed and the only thing blocking the view from outside was a curtain,” said a senior SMC employee in whom one of the women confided.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. Delhi: Cops Suspect Gang Rivalry Behind Rohini Murder
A day after a 26-year-old man was shot dead by assailants in Rohini, police have identified two sharpshooters and suspect the incident to be a fallout between the victim and the Deepak Titar gang.
According to police, the victim, Anchil Thakur, who has a crime record, was hit by over 15 of the 50 bullets fired at his Scorpio car on Wednesday evening.
Police believe a total of eight persons are involved in the murder and said no arrest has been made so far.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Rohini) S D Mishra said: “We have registered a case of murder at Kanjhawala police station. We are scanning CCTV footage and conducting local enquiries to identify the accused and ascertain the sequence of events. We suspect a gang war led to this. We have identified a few more suspects. The accused will be nabbed soon.”
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. 20-Year-Old Stabbed 10 Times in Lucknow, Bleeds to Death
A 20-year-old engineering dropout was stabbed to death by four youths at the front gate of a sprawling residential enclave in Gomtinagar Extension on Thursday, 20 February, afternoon.
According to police, victim Prashant Singh — who lived on rent with three roommates at Vijay Khand in the city — was stabbed at least 10 times and bled to death before he could be given medical help.
“The accused targeted the victim’s vital organs. His heart was punctured. Postmortem will determine in details the nature of injuries,” said ACP (Gomtinagar) Santosh Kumar Singh.
The trigger behind the attack seems to be an ego clash with college seniors at a restaurant on Wednesday.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. HC Ex-Judge Booked for ‘Assault’ on Cop
A retired judge of the Allahabad High Court was among 33 people booked for allegedly “assaulting and illegally confining” a police constable during discussions on CAA and NRC held on private premises in Pilibhit on 13 February.
Mushaffey Ahmad, who served as a judge in the High Court between 2012 and 2013 told TOI that he had not attended the gathering but had counselled some members of the group when they met him the same day to seek advice on how to express their views on CAA and NRC without violating laws. Police booked the 33 identified individuals and 100 unidentified people under various sections of the IPC.
Ahmad said on Thursday, 20 February, “I wasn’t at the meeting. I had told the group that this gathering would be in violation of section 144 of the CrPC, but that peaceful expression of their views was well within their constitutional rights”.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. Scholarship Fraud Kingpin Held After Six Years
The sleuths of the UP Police Economic Offence Wing (EOW) arrested Ankit Kumar Rajput, 34, from Dehradun on Wednesday, 19 February, night. On the run for nearly six years, Rajput is the key accused in a fraud case related to the distribution of scholarship to students of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and economically weaker section in Bijnor district, police said.
Rajout ran a technical institute in Dehradun.
“Rajput has been arrested from his Dehradun hideout in Jagrati Vihar locality under Raipur police station limits,” said Abhay Nath Tripathi, spokesperson, state police.
Rajput was wanted in the case of fraudulently withdrawing scholarship of 1,015 students valuing around Rs 6 crore between 2010 and 2012, he added.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. Three Held for Rs 60 Crore Property Fraud in Gurgaon
Three people have been arrested by Gurgaon Police for property fraud of Rs 50-60 crore, with officials saying the accused would prepare false documents related to plots owned by others, transfer those to people they knew, and then sell them to unsuspecting buyers.
According to police, the accused have been identified as Faridabad resident Vibha; Rajendra, a resident of Gurgaon; and Delhi resident Lucky Uppal.
“The three were arrested following investigation into a case registered at Sushant Lok police station on 23 January, where the complainant had stated that somebody had prepared false documents, impersonated him, and sold his plot,” said PRO of Gurgaon Police Subhash Boken.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. Purandar: ATS Seizes 10 KG Mephedrone From Factory
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) seized 10.5 kg of synthetic drug mephedrone at a factory in Pune district on Wednesday, 19 February.
The raid came two months after the owner of the factory along with an employee were arrested allegedly in possession of 14.3 kg of the drug, popularly known as ‘meow meow’, in Vile Parle. Police said Santosh Adake (29) and Mahendra Patil (49) were accused of sourcing the drugs from Pune.
An ATS official said an investigation of Adake’s bank accounts revealed several payments made to vendors of chemical manufacturing equipment. “We found that Adake had purchased and installed equipment at a factory he runs in Pune’s Purandar taluka,” the official said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. College Manager Held for Giving ‘Copying Tips’
The manager of a private college in Mau has been arrested for giving “copying tips” to students and advising them to “leave currency notes in answersheets” in the UP Secondary Education Board examinations to get passing marks.
A video of Pravindra Mall giving the “tips” during annual function of Harivansh Memorial Inter College last month went viral after it was uploaded on the CM’s complaint portal.
In the video, Mall was heard saying: “Ask fellow students the answers. That’s not copying. Stay quiet when your chit is caught as the invigilator might let you off, but if you argue they will spoil your life.” In the video, he also advised students to “leave currency notes in answersheets” to get passing marks from evaluators.
(Source: The Times of India)
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