1. MBA Exec Held for Molesting His Co-Flyer, a Lawyer
Sahar police on Tuesday, 23 October arrested a senior sales executive for molesting a 29-year-old Mumbai-based lawyer on board a Bangkok-Mumbai Thai Airways flight.
The accused, identified as Chandrahas Tripathi, an MBA professional, inappropriately touched the victim when the lights were switched off after the flight took off from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok late on Monday. Tripathi was sent to judicial custody. Police will record the statement of the airline.
Tripathi was taken into custody by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) after the flight landed at Mumbai’s CSIA at around 6.15am.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. ED Files Chargesheet Against 191 Entities
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday, 23 October, filed another chargesheet against 191 entities, including seven individuals, in the Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech Limited money laundering case, alleging that they had cheated banks of ₹8,100 crore. The main accused persons are suspected to have fled abroad.
The agency had earlier submitted four charge-sheets and attached assets worth ₹4,710 crore in the case. The investigation involved scrutiny of more than 15 lakh papers and digital records. The Directorate said it would soon initiate action against the absconding persons under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. Interpol Red Notice are also to be issued.
The total outstanding amount, including the interest, with respect to the Sterling group is now ₹13,754 crore.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. Businessman Duped of Rs 2 Lakh, One Arrested
Mumbai Police on Monday, 22 October, arrested a 49-year-old man for his alleged involvement in duping a high-end car dealer from Marine Drive. The 66-year-old businessman was allegedly duped of Rs 2 lakh. The police said the accused posed as Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Sujeet Kumar from Gujarat and claimed that his daughter is hospitalised after an accident for which he was in urgent need of cash.
According to police officers, the complainant, identified as Jatin Manubhai Seth, owns two showrooms in Mumbai (south Mumbai and Andheri) and also runs a school at Batod district in Gujarat.
An officer from Marine Drive police station said: “On August 21, there was an inauguration programme of a hall which he had constructed in the school in Gujarat. For that IAS officer Kumar and Botad Superintendent of Police had been invited.”
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Sexual Abuse Allegation Against Two Priests in Shillong, Church to Probe
Four days after a Khasi art and communications consultant, Mary Therese Kurkalang, put up a Facebook post alleging sexual harassment by two Catholic priests in Shillong, the Congregation of Christian Brothers said they would initiate an inquiry.
“The Christian Brothers have learnt of an allegation of sexual abuse by one of its members made through a Facebook post as part of the #me too movement,” said Brother J Johnson, Society Protection officer, Professional Ethics Commission of the community, in a statement. “The Christian Brothers stand in solidarity with and in support of any survivor of sexual abuse. We are committed to a just and fair hearing to both the complainant and the alleged abuser, through a formal process as laid out in our Protection Policy — ‘Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults’.”
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Haryana Hunts for Mystery Caller Who Tried to Extort Using CMO Landline
Seven days ago, a BJP leader from Karnal received a string of calls on his mobile phone from a Chandigarh landline number and on WhatsApp. In one call, the caller claimed to be a cousin of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. In another, he tried to pose as Khattar’s media advisor.
All the calls to Chander Prakash Kathuria conveyed the same demand — and a threat: Deposit 60,000 Dirhams (approximately Rs 12 lakh) in a Dubai account number or “face dire consequences”.
Kathuria, a seasoned politician who heads the Haryana State Federation of Co-operative Sugar Mills Ltd (Sugarfed), immediately smelt a scam and alerted a senior police officer.
What happened next took both by surprise.
The landline did indeed belong to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on the fourth floor of the Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. Actor Ajaz Khan Arrested by Navi Mumbai Cops for Possession of Drugs
Actor Ajaz Khan, 37, was arrested by the Navi Mumbai crime branch late on Monday, 21 for the alleged possession of 3,4-methylenedioxy-metamphetamine (MDMA) — popularly known as ecstasy tablets, a banned narcotic — from a hotel in CBD Belapur.
The former reality TV contestant, a resident of Yari Road, Versova, was produced in a Belapur court on Tuesday and has been remanded in police custody for two days. The actor told the court that the government was trying to frame him.
According to the deputy commissioner of police (crime) Tushar Doshi, “We received information that a person possessing narcotics would be at the hotel. Hence, shortly after midnight, we conducted a raid and found the drugs on Khan. While we had information that there was a larger quantity of drugs involved, we found only 8 tablets (2.3g) on him.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. 2 BJP Men Accused in Cong Worker’s Murder Nabbed
The two BJP men accused in the murder of Congress party worker Manoj Dubey (45) below Asalpha metro station were nabbed at Bhusawal, Jalgaon district, while allegedly trying to flee to Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, 23 October.
The alleged trigger point for the murder was when Dubey slapped both the accused —civil contractor Jitendra Mishra alias Bandish (27) and Umesh Singh alias Thakur
(30)— early on Monday and tore a party banner, said police officials. Both the accused are said to be BJP workers.
Mishra and Singh allegedly attacked Dubey after the bike on which they were riding had a head-on collision with his two-wheeler near Shiv Narayan Temple around 1.30am on Monday. Dubey was slashed 30 times with swords and sustained at least 15 deep cuts to his stomach.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. Attack on Man Arrested as Juvenile in 2013 Shakti Mills Gangrape Case
A man who spent three years in a correction facility for juveniles for the 2013 gangrape of a young woman photographer in Shakti Mills, was attacked early on Monday, 22 October by a group of three persons with a bamboo stick and a sharp weapon.
The police registered a case of attempt to murder but were yet to trace the culprits. The attacked man, who was externed from city limits of Mumbai last May for coming in conflict with the law, had been arrested twice for entering the city limits illegally.
Jailed on both occasions, he was subsequently granted bail.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. BJP Neta, Kin Booked for Assaulting Teen
A BJP corporator from Mira Road along with his wife and daughter have been booked for molesting a 19-year-old girl from their building last week.
Daulat Gajre, corporator from ward number 18 was arrested along with his wife and daughter and released on bail on Monday, 22 October.
The incident took place on October 18 when the Gajre family manhandled the teen after an argument over playing music in their housing complex. The corporator’s wife and daughter allegedly tore the girl’s dress and assaulted her. Gajre too joined the fight and the girl was left with bruises on her body.
(Source: The Times of India)