1. Woman Publicly Flogged by Husband on Panchayat’s Orders for Eloping
A woman was allegedly tied to a tree and flogged in public by her husband on a village panchayat’s order for eloping with another man in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, police said on Thursday, 22 March.
The woman’s husband, a former panchayat head and his son were arrested after a video clip of the incident was widely circulated on social media and through messaging apps. Hindustan Times could not independently verify the authenticity of the video clip.
The incident occurred on 10 March at Launga village, about 400 km from state capital Lucknow.
Bulandshahr superintendent of police Praveen Ranjan Singh said police registered a case against 18 people, 12 of them unidentified, after receiving a copy of the video clip. “Former pradhan Shersingh, his son Shravan and woman’s husband Shaudan Singh have been arrested and raids are underway to arrest other accused”, said Singh.
The 73-second video clip, apparently shot with a mobile phone, purportedly shows the saree-clad woman’s hands tied to an overhead branch of a tree and repeatedly hit with what appeared to be a leather belt by a man in a green shirt and a jacket. The woman could be heard grunting and screaming after each hit.
Police said the panchayat wanted to “teach a lesson to the woman”.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. School Trustee Accused of Sexual Abuse: 8 Parents File Intervention Application in HC
Eight parents from an international school in Andheri have filed an intervention application before the Bombay High Court, in a petition filed by the mother of a four-year-old girl, who had accused the founder trustee of the school of sexually abusing the minor in his office.
The mother had moved the High Court last week for cancellation of the bail granted to the founder trustee on 24 November 2017 by the Dindoshi sessions court. The parents have intervened in the case “out of concern for the safety of their children and other students studying at the school”.
Calling it a serious matter, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere said she will hear the intervention application and the petition seeking the cancellation of bail on 27 March.
On 7 May 2017, parents of a three-year-old girl had approached MIDC police station alleging that the founder trustee had sexually abused her in his office.
The intervention application says that as soon as the founder trustee was released on bail, an email was circulated on 8 December 2017 to all the parents of the school, announcing that he has been granted bail and that he has resumed work in the school.
The application says, “In light of such serious offences, it is only as a matter of caution that the Respondent No.1 (founder trustee) should not be allowed to return to school. The applicants (parent), given the present situation, being parents of children as young as three years old, are worrying about the safety of their children”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. 22-Year-Old Stabbed to Death for Refusing Cigarette to Group of Four
A 22-year-old computer designing student was stabbed to death six times by four men at the Netaji Subhash Place signal, allegedly because he refused to give them a cigarette.
Police said the incident took place on Wednesday night. According to police, initial investigation revealed that the victim, Mohit, was smoking. One of the four accused asked him for a cigarette, but he refused. Police said the accused got into a heated argument with Mohit and stabbed him.
Police said they are also probing a robbery angle as the assailants made off with his phone and Rs 400.
DCP (northwest) Aslam Khan said they have registered an FIR but no arrest has been made so far.
“At 1:15 am, we received a PCR call that a man had been stabbed at the Netaji Subhash Place signal. Police rushed to the spot. By then, his friends and two passersby had taken him to Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, where he was declared brought dead. Doctors said he had sustained multiple stab injuries”, an officer said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Criminals Open Fire on Crime Branch Officers, Escape
Members of a criminal gang, involved in extortion, opened fire on Delhi Crime Branch personnel after they were intercepted near Ekant Marg, police said. The incident took place on Thursday, 22 March.
However, the five criminals of the gang, which is active in south Delhi, managed to escape after the shoot out. Police said that information was received that the gang's members were proceeding towards Kosi Kalan, Mathura, for procuring a large cache of arms.
Following the tip-off a trap was laid at the Ekant Marg near Karni Singh Shooting Range and a team of Crime Branch was deployed for nabbing them, they said.
The Crime Branch personnel signalled a vehcile to stop but the driver rammed the car into the barricade and tried to run over a police man. The car's occupants, five in number, opened fire. The police team fired in retaliation. However, the accused continued to drive the vehicle with a flat tyre.
Police said that the car crashed into another vehicle. The criminals managed to escape, they said.
(Source: PTI)
5. Father Arrested for ‘Raping’ Two Minor Daughters
A shop owner in Sector 10 area of Gurgaon was arrested on Thursday afternoon for allegedly raping her two minor daughters over the last six months. His elder daughter told police that her mother was away at her native village the first time he first forced herself on her.
A case was registered against the accused in Sector 10 A police station. The case was filed on the complaint of his elder daughter, who is 15 years old, on Wednesday evening. Police said that the accused was booked under Pocso (Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and arrested.
Police said that the accused will be produced before a court on Friday.
According to the complaint filed by the 15-year-old, her father took advantage of the fact that her mother was travelling to her native village with her brother a few months ago and she and her sister had been sleeping with him.
“Me and my father had fallen asleep when my father removed my clothes and raped me. I was shocked and numbed by the pain that he inflicted on me. My younger sister lay motionless as she was too shocked and terrified to react. I was too scared to narrate my ordeal to anyone”, the victim told police.
She told police that since that incident, she was raped thrice more by her father, but, out of fear and shame, she couldn’t open up to her mother. She said that on 5 March, her 12-year-old sister told her that her father had also been raping her and had warned her against reporting her abuse to anyone.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Man ‘Dupes’ Cops by Promising Them Houses, Arrested
A “builder” who is suspected to have cheated 100-odd policemen from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai by promising them houses in a building that did not belong to him, was arrested by Agripada police on Wednesday night.
A proclamation notice had been issued against Avinash Raskar (52) after he went missing following his release on bail in 2015. Raskar who offered “special discounts to policemen” would show them plots in Navi Mumbai where he planned to develop a housing society.
He would collect token amounts from the policemen and then go missing. It would later emerge that the plot did not belong to Raskar.
Senior Inspector of Agripada police Savlaram Agawane said: “Our team has arrested Avinash Raskar who had been missing for around two years after being released on bail in 2015. He had duped several policemen by promising them houses on a plot that did not belong to him.”
Since Raskar’s residence came under the jurisdiction of Agripada police, a team comprising police Sub-Inspector Sandeep Joste and Constable Sachin Khanvilkar had been formed to track him down.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Four Youths Held on Drug Peddling Charge
The city police on Wednesday arrested four youths on the charge of drug peddling.
The arrested were identified as Vaisakh, 19, a native of Elamakkara; Rahul, 24, from Puthuvaipu; Sreekumar, 31, of Peroorkada in Thiruvananthapuram; and Aswin, 21, of Kolancheri.
Visakh, involved in the sale of ganja on school premises, was found in possession of 1 kg of ganja. He was arrested after Aswin, his close aide, was picked up from HMT junction, while handing over ganja packets to students. Rahul and Sreekumar used to smuggle hashish from Goa to Kochi via sea route and sell it among tour guides in Fort Kochi.
(Source: The Hindu)
8. Ten-Year Jail to Man for Sexually Abusing Girl
A 52-year-ols man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually abusing a nine-year old girl who is his daughter’s friend. A special court found the man guilty on charges, including rape, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation, along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
According to the prosecution, the accused who stayed in the same building as the victim would sexually abuse her in the afternoon. The incident allegedly took place multiple times from January 2017, but the girl spoke to her mother in May last year while returning home from a holiday.
The victim’s mother told the court that the girl told her she did not want to return home and wanted her family to shift somewhere else. Asked why she wanted it, the girl narrated the incidents to the mother.
The accused, however, claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case as there was an issue between the victim’s uncle and him over redevelopment of the building where they stayed. The man also brought defence witnesses to the court, including his two daughters and mother, who spoke about being present at home during the period when the alleged incidents took place.
The court held there was enough evidence to show that the girl had been abused by the accused. The man has been directed to pay a compensation of Rs 75,000 to the victim.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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