Revealing the brutal story of the barbarity, 8 Rohtak Gangrape accused have confessed their crime. The absconding 9th member of the gang is reported to have committed suicide in Delhi’s Bawana area.

The arrested are identified as Santosh Nepali, Rajesh alias Ghuchdu, Sunil alias Sheela, Sarwar alias Billu, Manvir, Sunil alias Mata, Pawan and Pramod alias Padam. All the 8 accused were sent to eight-day police remand. Meanwhile, only four among the arrested have confessed that they were involved in the brutal murder of the deceased.

The accused have confessed that they first took turns to rape the woman and when she fell unconscious they attacked her with bricks.

“While one of the accused twisted her arms and held them together near the head, two others pulled her legs apart. Rajesh alias Ghuchdu took sharpedged stones and attacked her private parts. Two stones were inserted inside her, besides blades,” a source said.

“Pata nahi kya ho gya tha hamein. Dimag hi kam nahi kar rha tha. Jo hua wo nashe me hua or hota chala gaya. Bawle paani ne pagal kar dia, budhi bhrast ho gai thi saahab (We do not know what happened to us. We were not in our senses. We were drunk and the madness went on!),” one of the accused reportedly told the police.

Another accused said they had no plans to murder the woman initially but later lost their senses.

“We did not want to kill her. We wanted to enjoy. Don’t know why we destroyed everything,” one of the accused reportedly told the police.

In yet another attack on the witness of the Surat rape case against controversial ‘godman’ Asaram, Rahul Sharma alias Rahul Sachan alias ‘Laptop Baba’ was on Friday attacked by unidentified man with a knife in Jodhpur court premises.

Sachan was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, police said that they have arrested the attacker.

Last month, Akhil Gupta, another witness in the said case and former driver and cook of Asaram was shot dead by unidentified persons in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar.

He was shot dead on Jansath Road under New Mandi police station area in Muzaffarnagar on his way back home by unidentified assailants.

Gupta had given statement before a Gandhinagar Court under section 164 of CrPC along with some incriminating proof against Asaram, who is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old schoolgirl.

The Supreme Court, later, declined a plea for bail by self-styled godman Asaram Bapu.

Earlier, in the chargesheet filed on January 9, 2014, before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gandhinagar, the Gujarat Police had named Asaram, his wife Lakshmi, daughter Bharti and four of his followers, Dhruvben, Nirmala, Jassi and Meera, for “hatching a conspiracy”, “illegal confinement” and “rape”.

Later, the Ahmedabad police listed 101 witnesses, of whom two, Akhil Gupta and Amrut Prajapati, are now dead. Three others related to the case have survived attacks. However, the SIT officials claim that since the murders took place after the chargesheet was filed, these would not affect the case.

The 72-year-old Asaram, who is currently lodged in Jodhpur jail, was arrested after a 16-year-old girl lodged a police complaint August 20, 2013, accusing him of sexually assaulting her at his ashram in Jodhpur.

Asaram was arrested in September 2013. He is being tried under the provision of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

In a temporary relief for social activist Teesta Setalvad, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed her arrest in connection with the Gulbarg Society fund embezzlement case till February 19.

The apex court passed its order in response to Setalvad’s interim bail plea and deferred the hearing till February 19.

The honourable apex court also stayed the arrest of all other accused in the case till further hearing.

The SC had on Thursday stayed Setalvad’s arrest hours after the Gujarat High Court rejected the anticipatory bail petitions filed by the social activist, her husband Javed Anand, Tanvir Jafri (whose father Ehsan Jafri, former Congress MP, was killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots) and Firoz Gulzar, a resident of Gulbarg Society here, in the case.

They all are accused of misusing funds to the tune of Rs 1.51 crore and face arrest.

A team of Gujarat police even went to Setalwad’s residence following the Gujarat HC verdict yesterday.

At the last hearing at the HC, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for the prosecution, had put before the court the statements of Setalwad’s former accountant Rais Khan who accused her and others of misusing the funds meant for the families of Gulbarg Society riot victims.

Setalwad, who has been espousing the cause of the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots, and others, have contended that the case was filed against them with political motives and they had not misused the funds.

On March 25, last year, the sessions court had rejected their pre-arrest bail applications.

The Crime Branch had registered a first information report in January 2014 against Setalvad and others for allegedly usurping the money collected by them for building a riots museum at the Society. The plan to build a museum was cancelled later.

Twelve residents of the Society had alleged that Setalvad embezzled the funds.

Sixty-nine people, including Ehsan Jafri, were killed in a mob’s attack on the society on February 28, 2002, following the Godhra train burning incident.

After being blamed by former three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit for the party’s shameful loss in the state Assembly polls 2015, Congress’ campaign chief Ajay Maken said on Friday that he would meet her and discuss the reasons for the rout.

A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi slammed party workers for playing blame-game over the loss, Maken said, “I will personally go and meet her (Sheila Dikshit), and ask her where we went wrong so we can take care in future.”

Reflecting on the pummeling handed to the grand old party by the Delhi voters, Maken opined, “Looks like people felt that AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) should be given 5 years to prove themselves hence the Delhi mandate.”

Taking the blame for the abject defeat – Ajay Maken, PC Chacko (Congress in-charge of the party affairs in Delhi) and Arvinder Singh Lovely (DPCC chief) had tendered their resignations to the party high command. Informing of Congress’ course of action in the matter, Maken added, “All three of us have submitted our resignation, but no decision has been taken yet.”

Following the Delhi results, Dikshit had lampooned Maken and said, “I just pity him. Ajay Maken was not the way to put the right focus. He thought he would do all by himself. He did not involve anyone else. Quite obviously his style did not help the Congress party.”

Congress could not win any seats in the Delhi polls, the voting for which took place on February 07, with the results being declared on February 10. The Aam Aadmi Party swept the polls winning a staggering 67 seats in the 70-member Assembly. The BJP was reduced to a mere three seats.

Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who was removed as the Chief Vigilance Officer of AIIMS last year, is expected to be appointed as Delhi’s top anti-corruption officer by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, reports said on Friday.

Chaturvedi was removed as CVO of AIIMS in August in a controversial manner with then health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan saying the step was taken as he did not fulfill the criteria for his appointment.

The AAP Cabinet, which will be sworn-in on Saturday at the Ramlila Maidan, is expected to make the decision next week.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had then demanded the immediate resignation of Dr Harsh Vardhan failing which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack him for his illegal action of having approved the shunting out of whistleblower officer Chaturvedi.

At least 11 passengers were on Friday killed and over 60 injured, some of them critically, when an express train bound for Ernakulam in Kerala from Bengaluru derailed near Anekal, about 45 kms away.

As per railway officials, about nine bogies of the Bangalore City-Ernakulam Intercity Express were derailed after a boulder fell on the track.

The train had left Bengaluru at 0615 hrs and derailed at 0735 hrs between Anekal Road and Hosur on Bangalore City-Salem Section, about 45 km from Bengaluru, Railways said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, wished the injured a speedy recovery. “Railway Minister (Suresh Prabhu) and officials are closely monitoring the situation and ensuring timely relief,” added the PM.

Meanwhile, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said a boulder fell on the track and the train hit it.

“I am personally monitoring it and in touch with State and local administration,” he tweeted.

Prabhu said he has directed all senior officers to rush to the spot with help.

The Union Railway Minister has announced an ex gratia of Rs. 2 lakhs to the next of the kin who lost lives in the mishap, Rs 50,000 for grievously injured passengers and Rs. 20,000 for those who sustained less injuries.

Law Minister Sadanand Gowda has reached the accident site, near the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The Railway Board Chairman had been directed to evacuate all stranded passengers, besides which medical help had been rushed, he said.

“Five deaths (confirmed) so far,” Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Anil Kumar Agarwal, who rushed to the accident site, told a news agency.

“At least five to six persons have died. Exact number of casualties would be known after some time as rescue and relief operations are still underway,” said Karnataka Home Minister K J George.

Prabhu said an inquiry had been ordered to fix responsibility and for corrective action to prevent such unfortunate accidents. He said he was monitoring “action” regularly.

“All rescue teams are here, including police, medical and Railways. All measures have been taken to rescue the trapped persons,” George said. Relief and rescue operations are on in full swing with medical teams from both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the spot. Police and Railway officials said efforts were being made to reach those trapped inside the derailed bogies.

Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been rushed to the spot.

The injured have been rushed to hospitals in nearby Hosur and Bengaluru, they said.

Helpdesks have been set up at Bangalore City Railway Station and at the accident site.

With senior JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar admitting mistake in choosing Jitan Ram Manjhi to succeed him as Chief Minister of Bihar, Manjhi on Friday said that it was not just a “mistake” but “a great mistake”.

“I have spent 34 year in politics and worked on different posts as minister and legislator. He (Nitish) committed great mistake in assuming that I’ll act like his puppet,” said Manjhi.

Manjhi, who had been so far maintaining restrain in making comments on Nitish Kumar, said “it is true that after becoming CM in May, 2014 for 1-2 months, I used to act on whatever instruction that came from there (Nitish Kumar) on which people started calling me a rubber stamp CM and being run by remote by Kumar,” he said.

“But, soon my self-respect pricked my conscience and I started asserting for rights of poor which he and people close to him did not like,” Manjhi who began his electoral career in 1980 as MLA from Congress said.

“Mein garib jaroor hu par swabhiman rakhta hu (I am a poor no doubt but has self respect),” he said.

Flanked by minister Maha Chandra Prasad Singh, the Chief Minister said he did not do any wrong while speaking for poor and announcing some programmes for them.

“I rather consolidated vote of a large section of society (dalits and mahadalits who constitute over 22 per cent of votes in Bihar) to the JD(U) so that they no longer look for here and there but be with us (JD-U),” he said.

Manjhi noted that the trouble started when he launched a crackdown on middlemen in different ministries who used to “swallow” a large chunk of developmental money.

“They ganged up against me and put pressure on Nitish Kumar to act against me,” he said.

“Party spokesman and some ministers made public remarks against me and when I asked him (Nitish) if it was with his consent he maintained silence,” he added.