The Mumbai crime branch has arrested a gangster from Delhi who had allegedly set a businessman on fire in broad daylight last month.
DCP Mohan Dahikar said that Keshav Kakkad, the accused, was arrested yesterday and handed over to Delhi police.
Kakkad, according to the police, poured kerosene on a businessman and set him on fire at a market in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area last month when the latter refused to pay him ransom.
The victim suffered 83 per cent burn injuries, and suffered a heavy loss as five of his shops also caught fire. He is in hospital and his condition was said to be critical.
An old woman had died and four others were injured in the fire.
Crime branch officers nabbed Kakkad after getting a tip-off that he would be arriving in Versova area here, the DCP said.
NCP attacked the Devendra Fadnavis government, saying that despite being stable, it was the weakest and the most indecisive government till date.
“The present government has an absolute majority on the floor of the House with 122 BJP and 63 Shiv Sena legislators. Never before a government had such numbers after 1980. Still, it is the weakest and the most indecisive. Neglect of farmers is the highlight of its tenure,” Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare said.
Tatkare was interacting with reporters here during a press programme organised by the Mantralaya and Vidhimandal Vartahar Sangh to mark the completion of one year in office of the BJP-Sena government.
“To implement their populist announcements of scrapping of toll and Local Body Tax, the government hiked imposed taxes,” Tatkare said.
“Concessions were given only to a certain section of the society. But taxes were imposed on all,” he said.
The NCP state chief further said, “The Fadnavis government can’t blame the previous Congress-NCP regime for all problems and hide its own failures”.
Tatkare said Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ referred to the decision of hike taxes on petrol and diesel as pickpocketing.
“However, it is not yet known if Sena’s five Cabinet ministers approved the decision in the Cabinet meeting. Is Shiv Sena too a party to the pickpocketing,” he asked.
Congress-NCP too had their share of differences while ruling the state, he said.
“We too had a difference of opinion on certain issues but did not let that come the in way of implementing people-oriented welfare schemes. The administration was not impacted,” he added.
The Central Railway (CR) today started accepting complaints, suggestions and objections in Marathi from the passengers.
As a part of the initiative undertaken by Chief Commercial Manager R D Sharma, CR has distributed over 500 complaint books to the major railway stations in the state.
Chief PRO of Central Railway Narendra Patil said, “We want to connect with the passengers in a more friendly manner and this is the best way to listen to and respond to the complaints, suggestions and objections of our valued customers.”
Patil clarified that there was no demand as such from any section of the commuters for facilitating complaints or feedback in Marathi. The CR wanted to listen to the passengers’ voice in their own language in which they are more comfortable, he said.
On an average the Mumbai division of CR receives over 300 complaints and suggestions every month.
In March this year the Railways had launched a mobile phone app and a portal to provide the commuters with “an effective forum to lodge complaints”.
“At the national level we receive almost 500 complaints, objections and suggestions through our website every month which are forwarded to the concerned department and the higher-ups,” added Patil.
The Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to four persons for murdering a Muslim couple during the 1992 communal riots in Mumbai, while observing that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice V K Tahilramani and Justice A S Gadkari on October 27 dismissed the appeals filed by the four convicts – Suhas Panchal, Sanjay Mandavkar, Sunil Mandavkar and Chandan Lokhande – challenging a sessions court order of February 2011 convicting them for murder and imposing life sentence on them.
According to the prosecution, the accused, soon after the communal riots in Mumbai in December 1992, had asked Gani Shaikh and his wife Rabiya Shaikh to vacate the room he and his family were staying in at suburban Chembur or else face dire consequences.
On the night of January 11, 1993, the accused persons allegedly pelted stones at the house of the Shaikhs and dragged Rabiya out of the house and stabbed her with a sword and also attacked Gani.
While Rabiya died on the spot, Gani succumbed to his injuries in the hospital later. The couple’s four children managed to escape from the spot.
Senior counsel S R Chitnis, appearing for the accused, argued that the prosecution has not been able to prove that the accused were present at the spot at the time of the incident.
He further argued that the prosecution case relies on the evidence of the couple’s children who were eye-witness to the incident, but they have not mentioned names of the accused in their statement.
Prosecutor H J Dedhia argued that the accused were angered with the assault on one of their brothers during the 1992 riots and hence, had a grudge against the Muslim community. A fortnight before the incident, one of the accused had threatened Shaikh to vacate the house, he said.
The court, after perusing the evidence and facts of the case, dismissed the appeals and upheld the conviction.
“We are of the considered opinion that the appellants in pursuance of conspiracy have acted in concert and while exhibiting the common intention they committed the crime in question. The appellants are the perpetrators of the said crime and are guilty of the offence for which they are charged with,” the court said.
Security of underworld don and India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been enhanced in Pakistan after the arrest of his bete noire Chhota Rajan in Indonesia. Special commandos of the Pakistan Army have been deployed at Dawood’s residences in Karachi and Islamabad where he has been living for more than two decades after the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, sources said quoting intelligence reports.
The Army commandos were deployed for the security of Dawood in the wake of the arrest of gangster Chhota Rajan in Bali on October 25. Rajan is expected to be brought to India in next few days after completion of his deportation formalities in Indonesia. Earlier on Monday, while being taken for questioning in Bali, Chhota Rajan told reporters that Dawood is in Pakistan under the protection of ISI.
Pakistan so far has been denying presence of Dawood on its soil. However, India has maintained that the most-wanted terrorist, who is wanted in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, has his bases in Karachi and Islamabad. New Delhi has also given several dossiers to Islamabad on Dawood over the years incorporating his criminal acts in India.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that Dawood keeps changing his location but he is permanently living in Pakistan. Singh had also told in Parliament that government will leave no stone unturned to bring back Dawood. “Indian government is committed to bring back Dawood,” he said.
Rajan, once a close confidante-turned-rival of Dawood, has said that he is not afraid of Dawood. In 2000, there was an attempt on Rajan’s life when Dawood’s men tracked him down to a hotel in Bangkok but he managed a dramatic escape.
Addressing a huge rally in Bihar’s Purnea district on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to clarify his party’s stand on intolerance, which the opposition is apparently trying to make an election issue, and said that “after the terrible 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Congress cannot lecture us on tolerance”.
“Sikhs were openly slaughtered following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Many Congress leaders were implicated for their role but they managed to go scot-free,” Modi said.
He said that Bihar needs BJP to secure its bright future.
“People of Bihar only accepted you (CM Nitish Kumar) because you were lucky enough to have Atal ji’s blessings whom people of nation had faith in,” Modi said adding, Nitish must give an account of his works.
“What happened to Nitish ji’s plan for electricity for all, power, employment, road and security.
“They could not provide anything and that is why they could not give an account of their work,” Modi said.
“Vote for BJP and we will bring rapid development. We will provide 24X7 electricity, better roads, better education, water and medicine for the old.
“We will also create employment opportunities for the youth so that they don’t have venture outside the state for jobs,” he said.
“Those who were in power in the state now must give an account of what they have done.
“Bihar yearns for change. We have cleared Rs.1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar’s development,” Modi said in a last ditch effort to woo the voters before the fifth phase of voting .
“Bihar needs two engines, one in Patna and the other in Delhi, to pull the state out of the crisis” he added.
Police in Nepal on Monday shot dead an Indian national during protests in the country’s Birgunj city close to the Indian border, officials said.
The deceased was identified as Asish Kumar Ram, 24. He belonged to Raxaul in Bihar.
Nepal’s Home Secretary Surya Silwal confirmed that a protester had been killed in a clash with police.
The man died after being caught in police firing near the Shankaracharya Gate, the main gateway to Nepal from India.
He sustained bullet injuries on the head and was declared dead at the Narayani Hospital.
Its medical director Imamul Haq said Ram was dead even before reaching the hospital.
The police reportedly fired dozens of bullets and tear gas after being heavily pelted with stones by protesters near the Indian border.
Several protesters were injured by rubber bullets fired by the security forces, a police official said.
The Birgunj-Raxaul border point has come under the control of protesters, one account said.
Later, when the police chased them away, they reached the bridge that links Nepal and India.
They again stoned Nepal’s security forces from Indian territory, witnesses said.
All the major Nepal-India entry points have been tense for the past one and a half months after the promulgation of a new constitution in the Himalayan nation triggered protests in areas close to the Indian border.
The Gujarat High Court on Monday reserved its order after hearing arguments on a plea of Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and five others seeking quashing of FIR against them by city Crime Branch on stringent charges of sedition and waging war against government.
During the arguments in the court of Justice JB Pardiwala, public prosecutor Mitesh Amin strongly defended the stand of Crime Branch in slapping stringent charges against Hardik and five other quota leaders — Ketan Patel, Chirag Patel, Dinesh Patel, Alpesh Kathiriya and Amrish Patel.
According to Amin, the FIR against them is based on call interceptions made by Crime Branch. In all, the Crime Branch has recorded more than 200 such calls made by these Patel leaders between July and September this year, he said.
Amin alleged that the conversations were of “very caustic” in nature, such as the accused could be heard asking their supporters to torch police chowkies, dislodge railway tracks and murder policemen.
These conversations were made as part of an attempt to topple the government, the prosecutor argued.
Apart from the calls, police learnt that as many as 35 lakh messages, urging the community to resort to violence, were sent using social media platform immediately after Hardik was detained by police on the night of August 25.
Amin submitted that the fallout of such communication was the statewide violence, which claimed seven lives, including that of a policeman.
In the FIR filed on October 21, Patel leaders are charged under IPC sections 121 (waging war against the government), 124 (sedition — bringing hatred, contempt or disaffection towards the government), 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) and 153-B (assertions prejudicial to national integrity).
Noted historian Irfan Habib has triggered a massive controversy by equating the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the dreaded terror outfit the Islamic State.
Speaking at “Pratirodh” (resistance), an event organised in Delhi on the birth anniversary of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar – in the context of the fears of growing violence and intolerance and the undermining of pluralism – Habib said, “…There is not much difference between Islamic State (IS) and the RSS as far as intellect goes.”
Habib said that while it is true that communal tension existed in the past as well but people like him have reasons to be more worried now.
“It is true that violence and tension existed previously. However, we have to keep in mind the fact that the RSS in some way or the other has been connected to these riots in every major report of such instances. The intelligentsia is now perturbed because those people are in power,” Habib said.
Habib went on to allege that RSS ids influenced by Adolf Hitler. “This is a government that is controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It is no secret that MS Golwalkar, the ideological fountainhead of the RSS, was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. This government is now trying to realize Golwalkar’s dream,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his hit-list. “I think it is very disturbing when the prime minister of the country says something as unscientific as asserting that Lord Ganesha got plastic surgery done. For all his faults, Atal Bihari Vajpayee never said anything this ridiculous. Narendra Modi is much worse.”
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday met President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and, reportedly, drew his attention towards growing intolerance in the country.
While no details of the meeting, which has now ended, are available so far, the Congress president, along with senior leaders and MPs, was expected to tell the President about the growing concern over the issue of intolerance and urge him to advice the government to act firmly.
Congress leaders were also expected to take out a march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, sources had said.
The meeting between the Congress leader and the President lasted for about an hour.
Expressing her concern over rising intolerance, Sonia Gandhi had at a function here on Saturday vowed to fight the “diabolical design” of divisive forces to spread hatred, which posed a threat to the unity of the country.
“Organisations and people of a particular ideology are spreading it to divide people. We are under no illusion that it is an accident. The hate, violence and petty mindedness is being unleashed as part of a pre-determined plan. We will not allow such a diabolical design to succeed…It will shake country’s foundations… We are ready to fight the battle,” she had said.
Addressing a huge rally in Bihar’s Purnea district on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to clarify his party’s stand on intolerance, which the opposition is apparently trying to make an election issue, and said that “after the terrible 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Congress cannot lecture us on tolerance”.