Massive fire breaks out at luggage factory in Delhi, 43 killed

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December 8, 2019

At least 43 people were killed in a massive fire that took place at Aanaj Mandi area on Rani Jhansi Road in Delhi early on Sunday. According to the last figure, over 56 people have been injured in the fire. As per sources the incident took place 5:22 AM and the after that the locals of the area informed the fire brigade and Delhi police. At least 15 fire vehicles and 30 fire tenders were immediately rushed to the site to douse the blaze.

Death toll rises to 43 in #DelhiFire incident, according to police. pic.twitter.com/rOtaVQAcAh

— Afternoon Voice (@Afternoon_Voice) December 8, 2019

Deputy fire chief officer Sunil Choudhary said, “A fire broke out in a 600 sq feet plot. It was very dark inside. It is a factory where school bags, bottles and other materials were kept. The fire has now been doused, most of the people affected were labourers sleeping inside when the fire broke out.”

“The owner of the building has been arrested,” he added.

On Delhi fire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “The fire in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road is extremely horrific. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy.”

The fire in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road is extremely horrific. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2019

The fire official said the rescued people were admitted to RML Hospital and LNJP and Hindu Rao Hospital.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Very very tragic news. Rescue operations going on. Firemen doing their best. Injured are being taken to hospitals.”

V v tragic news. Rescue operations going on. Firemen doing their best. Injured are being taken to hospitals. https://t.co/nWwoNB4u3Q

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 8, 2019

There is nothing in the world that can give justice to Rape Victim

By

Vaidehi Taman

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December 6, 2019

The injustice that ended the life of Priyanka Reddy, a young educated girl who had her whole life ahead is intolerable. There is nothing in the world that can give justice to her even if the entire police stations are fired; the rapists are encountered because nothing can bring her back. She was not spared from appeasement even in her death. People were angry attacking the government and police department, as they do after every rape case, but for a change all the four accused in the rape and murder of veterinarian in Telangana were killed in an encounter with the police. The accused were taken to the spot for recreation of the crime scene; however, they tried to flee from the spot following which the police had to open fire at them. They were shot dead after they tried to escape. This is all the police’s version. No law in India sanctions encounter of accused by the police. Too many among those who are reacting to this killing of gangrape and murder accused, who were under police custody, the police action was “justice” being delivered. People were seen shouting slogans in praise of the Hyderabad Police. Flowers were showered on police personnel. People were seen celebrating the police action in other parts of the country, including the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai.

Social media has split reactions but overall everyone was happy with the end. Some politicians too have justified the police action. Mayawati, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh said the police action is “commendable” and that justice has been done. She went on to say, “Had police taken a similar tough action in the case of Nirbhaya gangrape, justice could have been delivered early. Nirbhaya was gangraped and fatally injured by six persons in a moving bus at Delhi in December 2012. Four of the accused were sentenced to death. But the death sentence has not yet been executed. The mercy petition of one of the four convicts on the death row was rejected by the Delhi government on December 1 this year. The delay has led to many questioning the justice delivery system. Parents of Nirbhaya a paramedic student expressed frustration over their “unending wait for justice”. The Supreme Court made it “mandatory for a magistrate to investigate so-called encounter deaths to ensure that investigations into police encounters are carried out effectively and independently to ensure that probe into police encounters are carried out effectively and independently”. There is no law that sanctions killing of an accused of any crime, including that of rape and murder. This forms the basis for a robust judicial system. The police are an investigating agency and not entitled to adjudicate cases pronouncing verdict on someone’s criminal culpability. Declaring someone guilty falls under the jurisdiction of the courts. This is a check on police’s action lest they pick up and implicate people to bring closure to the case.

Police arrested four persons saying they committed the crime on the night of November 26-27. For those not aware of what happened in Hyderabad, a 27-year-old veterinarian was waylaid, gangraped, smothered to death and burnt. Police said the four persons arrested committed the crime. The case was still under investigation. The chargesheet had not been filed. Trial had not begun. The court was yet to hear the accused and the prosecution. It was not yet proven that the accused who were shot dead were the actual culprits of the gangrape and murder. And, even if they were the culprits, the police were not authorised to take their lives. It is also not clear if the accused were capable by means of being armed or something similar to pose threat to life or lives of the policemen who took them for recreating the crime scene. For, only in the case of self-defence, causing death is not a crime under the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. As a benefit of a doubt, it is also not yet clear whether the police used all means to capture the accused when they allegedly tried to escape. However, there are certain provisions that have been cited to partially allow a police person to cause death of an accused.

Section 96 of the IPC says nothing is an offence which is done in the exercise of the right of private defence. IPC Section 100 lists outs situations under the right to private defence. It includes a scenario where the assaulter has a reasonable apprehension that she would be grievously hurt or killed if she does not act in self-defence. Then there is CrPC Section 46 that says if an accused or suspect forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him or attempts to evade the arrest, the police may use “all means necessary to effect the arrest”. It also states that nothing gives police “a right to cause a death of a person who is not accused of an offence punishable with death or with imprisonment for life.” This has been interpreted at times to mean that in cases where offence is punishable with death or life imprisonment, extra-judicial killing or encounter as they are popularly referred to in India is an option available to the police. But the Supreme Court in the 2015 case laid out a detailed 16-point guideline to judge every extra-judicial killing. The Hyderabad encounter is one such case of extra-judicial killing that ought to come to clean passing the Supreme Court guidelines scrutinised by a trained jurist to restore people’s faith in the rule of law that declares right to life is fundamental and asserts a life can be taken by the State only in accordance with the law.

A girl gets smothered, raped and burnt just because she was ALONE. Let that sink in. Just imagine what she must be going through those moments? What she must be thinking? You don’t want to imagine, right? What was her fault? Her only fault is simply being born in this country. A country where women are told to be safe but men are not asked to behave. Women are told to not wear revealing clothes, not to go out when it’s late in a country where victims don’t get speedy justice. Well! How many more cases do we need to put a stop to this? We all know she was not the FIRST one and she cannot be the LAST as well. But the encounter of the rapist was something solacing and new to heal the wounds.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

#HyderabadRapeAndMurder – Justice in its own way, Victims see ray of hope

By

Hema Singh

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December 6, 2019

The four men accused of raping and killing a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad were shot dead in an encounter in the wee hours of Friday. According to the report, the four accused were taken to Cherlapally central prison to Chatanpally, which is 50 km from Hyderabad, to recreate the crime scene.

As per sources, an accused suddenly snatched the weapon of one of the policemen and tried to escape. The cops say that in ‘self-defence’, the accused were shot dead. A senior police officer told to the news agency that, “They (accused) snatched weapons from police and fired on police and tried to escape… police fired in retaliation in which the four accused died.”

Reportedly the encounter took place at National Highway 44 around 3.30 am. An IPS officer of 1996 batch, Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar has confirmed the news about the ‘encounter’. Sajjanar who also popularly known as encounter specialist as he had similarly shot three accused of an acid attack case in the year 2008.

Former police of Uttar Pradesh on the condition of anonymity spoke to AV and said, “In Uttar Pradesh, the arrest and conviction are not much possible, the reason being all those rapists are either relatives of some or other Baahubalis (powerful people) or they are connected to some political parties. And reportedly these kinds of acts are not done by the common public in Uttar Pradesh. These are just ego issues or some pride issue that’s why most of the rapists are having Baahubali background. They are crowd pullers, hooligans who support the political rallies and political party vandalization. So no politician wants to take an enmity with them and that is the reason police are instructed to ignore such cases as long as they can.”

“That’s why conviction rates are very low,” he added.

As soon as the news came out, #JusticeForDisha #EncounterNight #HyderabadEncounter started trending on social media. The reason behind creating Justice for Disha hashtag is because as per Supreme Court guidelines, a rape victim’s identity or name should not be disclosed or used for reporting. Disha is the name given to the victim by the police. This is a second police encounter in Telangana where accused of a crime against women were shot dead while trying to escape.

When we spoke to Jaya Bachchan, she refused to talk on this encounter but said “It’s time to get the justice delivered; unless and until such brutal crimes can’t be controlled.”

On November 28, a 26-year-old veterinary doctor was found in an underpass on Hyderabad outskirts. Reportedly, the woman was smothered, gang-raped and then burnt by four accused on November 27 late night. After that Cyberabad police started their investigation with the help of CCTV footages which were installed near the highway and the locals of the area. As per police investigation, the accused decided the disturbing, spine-chilling crime the moment they saw the doctor parking her red scooter near the toll plaza. Later two men approached the woman, claiming that her bike was punctured and offered her to get it repaired. The two accused took the bike and returned after some time claiming that the nearby tyre repair shop was closed and later on they took her to another shop by saying to help her. The police investigation also revealed that the accused forcibly offered liquor to the woman and made her unconscious and following which they gang-raped and set the woman ablaze.

Senior Advocate Ujjwal Nikam said, “In Hyderabad encounter case I suspect the action and the intent of Hyderabad Police. This encounter has been done to divert people’s attention from truth. I am really confused to see what people are celebrating, it’s encounter of guilty? Or accused.”

The petrol pump attendant called the police and informed them around 12.30 am on Friday, that two the accused had come to buy petrol on the red scooter. But, he refused to give them petrol. Later police approached all the mechanics about the red scooter. However one of them told police that the two people arrived on a red scooter and asked for tyre alignment and air check. These two pieces of information are helped the police to arrest the accused and following which police held them. The arrested accuseds were identified as Mohammad Ali alias Mohammad Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen Kumar and Chintakunta Chenna Keshavulu.

Subsequently, the news flashes everywhere the father of the victim told to the news agency, “It has been 10 days to the day my daughter died. I express my gratitude towards the police and the government for this. My daughter’s soul must be at peace now.”

Niti (name changed) a rape victim of Delhi said to AV, “Police station is another hell here, all cases are not high profile cases. The Nirbhaya rape case grabbed national attention but there are more brutal rapes have occurred after that, however, no one spoke for them. No marches or no noises.”

After this incident the Uttar Bharat and Delhi rape victims are seeking for same encounter for rapists. Because of this incident it is expected that justice will be delivered to the victim.

A rape victim of Uttar Pradesh told AV, “I am expecting for justice since so many years. Forget about the justice, rapists are roaming free and police are showing them absconding. Finally, I had to shift to another state for my survival also my parents are under constant threat. I wish UP police too have guts like Hyderabad police, then only the crime against women will come down.”

How did the Bangladeshi jihadists get ISIS cap?

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Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

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December 6, 2019

Is there any existence of the Islamic State in Bangladesh? If this question is placed with the authorities, they will outright deny. All through they have been holding “neo-JMB” responsible for recent terrorist attacks in the country, including the gruesome attack on Holey Artisan café in Dhaka. It may be mentioned here that, on the evening of 1 July 2016, five gunmen burst into the Holey Artisan cafe in the upmarket Gulshan district of Dhaka.

Armed with assault rifles and machetes, the young attackers opened fire and took diners hostage at gun-point.

The attack saw victims inside the cafe, most of whom were foreigners, shot or hacked to death by the militants.

To my understanding, no jihadist or militancy outfit is named as “neo” anywhere in the world. In fact, there is no existence of the so-called neo-JMB even in Bangladesh. Either they are Jamaatul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB) or Islamic State (ISIS) chapter in Bangladesh. For the sake of effectively combating militancy, we need to, first of all, come out of confusion and accept the reality. Of course, some vested interest groups are eagerly seeing the existence of ISIS in Bangladesh. In recent days some ridiculous names have also been invented by some security agencies in the region, claiming their existence in Bangladesh, although such allegations or assumptions are totally baseless.

For the past few years, especially since December 2018, some notorious elements such as Jamaat-e-Islami are making frantic bids in proving the existence of Al Qaeda or ISIS in Bangladesh with the ulterior agenda of putting the government into discomfort. A prominent English daily with a dubious past is particularly enthusiastic in proving the existence of Ansar Al Islam (AAI) or Islamic State in this country. The agenda of that newspaper is no different than that of Jamaat. They want to destabilize the country and somehow create an atmosphere of putting the current government under international scrutiny and even pressure. Thanks to our law enforcement and security agencies for effectively combating jihadist elements and militancy groups in Bangladesh. To my own understanding, the existence of jihadist outfits has been mostly destroyed and even eliminated in the country because of the firm determination of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and particular contributions of the security and intelligence agencies. But of course, jihadist activities are still continuing and growing inside the prisons. This is not only happening in Bangladesh but most of the nations in the world, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, etc., also are expressing concerns at the growth of militancy inside prisons.

Recently, something extremely mysterious happened immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict into the case of the jihadist attack on the Holey Artisan café in Dhaka’s posh Gulshan area in 2016. Immediately after the trial court handed down the death penalty to each of the jihadists, they began chanting “Allahu Akbar” slogan and one of them named Rakibul Hasan Regan put on a black cap with the image of Islamic State (ISIS) flag. Later another jihadist was also seen wearing a similar cap. Following this incident, law enforcing and intelligence agencies have carefully scrutinized the video footage of the court premises and it was clear that these caps were not passed to those jihadists during their stay in the court premises. Instead, it was clearly proved that the caps were manufactured inside the prison.

Commenting on this incident, the jailor of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj told reporters, “We handed them over to the representative of detectives and SB [Special Branch] of police after searching them. We have all the video footage which shows that they left without having any such caps on them”. Undoubtedly, this statement of the jailor is a blatant lie. Prison authorities never seize any prayer cap from the prisoners during the search. Moreover, there are a series of allegations of the prisoners including the jihadists using mobile phones inside the prisons on a regular basis.

Jailor Mahbub also made another false statement saying there was no scope of collecting the cap [with ISIS logo] from within the prison. Rather, the fact is, similar caps can always be manufactured inside the prison from the tailoring section or by paying some cash to few convicted prisoners [especially those convict members of former BDR], who have been doing embroidery works and stitching of caps in exchange of cash or cigarette.

Though Islamic State members do not use any such cap, those convicted jihadists possibly used the cap to pronounce their identities as the “fighters” of ISIS. Immediately after the gruesome attack on the Holey Artisan café, Islamic State released several video footage claiming responsibility of this attack, which had killed several individuals, including foreigners and locals.

Although the matter of ISIS cap in the court is under investigation, there is possibly no room of having any doubt about this cap not being passed to the Holey Artisan attackers by anyone in the court premises. Instead, it certainly was manufactured inside the prison. The second point is, the prison authorities are particularly reluctant about the issue of dubious activities of the imprisoned jihadists in most of the jails in Bangladesh. The Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj or Kashimpur Central Jails (Part 1, 2 and 4 (high security) are no exception. In these jails, jihadists enjoy maximum facilities by bribing the authorities. Even they use mobile phones and communicate with their counterparts outside the prison, including some jihadists in India and Pakistan. Jailors are fully aware of these illegal activities but they remain mum just because of the monthly payment they receive from the jihadist outfits.

Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj is particularly a safe haven of the jihadists. According to specific information, jihadists either hire mobile phones from the prison guards or imprisoned top-terrorists. They pay a certain amount as daily or weekly rent for each of the phone sets. Even some prison guards work as the messengers of these jihadists in exchange for money.

Holey Artisan café attackers wearing an Islamic cap with the ISIS logo or their chanting of “Allahu Akbar” slogan inside the courtroom is a matter of grave concern. It had clearly exhibited the degree of the audacity of these beasts. For the sake of effectively combating radical Islam and militancy, the government should immediately take the decision of building a separate prison only for the jihadists with fool-proof security arrangements. Tough punitive measures should be initiated against the prison officials and guards in case of their connections or relations with the jihadists. The case of Islamic cap with ISIS logo in the court premises should be thoroughly investigated by the country’s intelligence agencies forthwith.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Salman isn’t affected by his stardom, says Sonakshi

By

Web Team

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December 6, 2019

Sonakshi Sinha says while working on the third installment of “Dabangg” franchise, she observed and learned how superstar Salman Khan never let his stardom go to his head.

Reflecting on her journey in Bollywood, which started with “Dabangg” in 2010, Sonakshi said one key takeaway for her after working with Salman was how to treat success with humility.

“I learnt a lot of things by just observing him which I eventually followed even in my journey. The very fact that he doesn’t take his super stardom so seriously. He takes it in his stride, he isn’t affected by it.

“He’s the kind of a guy who’d be living in the biggest of the hotels, fanciest of the rooms but would sleep on the couch,” Sonakshi told an agency.

The actor said Salman is incredibly grounded, something everyone wanting to have a long career should learn from.

“If he had let it go to his head, he wouldn’t have made a career like the one he has. He works with the same gusto he did twenty-five years back. These are the things you’ve to learn and follow if you want to have a career as long as him.”

“He never fails to surprise you. He only competes with himself. He wants to do better than what he did yesterday. What he manages to do all the time, so amazingly, it’s something to be inspired by.”

After “Dabangg”, Sonakshi went on to work in films like “Lootera”, “Rowdy Rathore” and most recently, “Mission Mangal”.

Directed by Prabhudeva, “Dabangg 3” also features Saiee Manjrekar and is scheduled to be release on December 20.

I’ve come out of all kinds of tags, don’t want them anymore: Akshay

By

Web Team

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December 6, 2019

In his career of more than 25 years, Akshay Kumar has been called an action star, comic actor and a patriotic hero but the superstar believes he has slowly come out of all kinds of tags and would never want to be associated with one ever again.

In the 90s, the actor was called “Khiladi Kumar” for featuring in action films, before he changed gears to comedy in the 2000s. Akshay then shifted to romantic-drama and currently he is known for starring in social dramas with patriotic undertones.

When asked which genre does he find himself most comfortable in, Akshay, in a group interview, said, “If I say I feel comfortable in one genre, you will put a tag on me. I don’t want any kind of tag. I’ve come out of that game of tags when I used to do only action, I was bored. I never wanted the tag of an action hero.

“Even now I don’t want any tags. I’m very comfortable playing all kinds of genres. If anything new comes in, if it’s risky and fun, then I’d just go for it.”

The actor will be next seen in “Good Newwz”. The Raj Mehta-directed comedy also features Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kiara Advani and Diljit Dosanjh.

Backed by Karan Johar, “Good Newwz” follows two couples with the same surnames whose decision to opt for in-vitro fertilisation goes awry.

“This is a serious subject but with comedy. We have taken a lot of care in presenting it. At the same time, no one can say this hasn’t happened because it has. It’s an important subject to talk about,” he added.

“Good Newwz” is scheduled to be released on December 27.

Rishi Kapoor returns to films, signs ‘Sharmaji Namkeen’

By

Web Team

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December 6, 2019

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, who was on a break from Bollywood due to health reasons, is now back to the industry with his forthcoming flick, titled ‘Sharmaji Namkeen’.

Bankrolled by Excel Entertainment (Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar) in collaboration with MacGuffin Pictures (Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey), the film mark as Rishi Kapoor’s first project post his return from the USA.

Taking to Twitter, Indian film critic and trade analyst, Taran Adarsh shared a picture of the team with the caption, “IT’S OFFICIAL… #RishiKapoor returns to films with #SharmajiNamkeen… Costars #JuhiChawla… Directed by Hitesh Bhatia… Produced by Excel Entertainment [Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar] in collaboration with MacGuffin Pictures [Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey]”.

IT’S OFFICIAL… #RishiKapoor returns to films with #SharmajiNamkeen… Costars #JuhiChawla… Directed by Hitesh Bhatia… Produced by Excel Entertainment [Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar] in collaboration with MacGuffin Pictures [Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey]. pic.twitter.com/yecljh63tR

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) December 5, 2019

Helmed by Hitesh Bhatia, the 67-year-old actor would be sharing screens with evergreen actor Juhi Chawla, who was last seen in the 2014 film ‘Gulaab Gang’. The two have previously collaborated in films like Daraar, Bol Radha Bol, Eena Meena Deeka, Saajan Ka Ghar and many more.

Rise in onion prices has become symbolic

By

Vinod Dixit

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December 6, 2019

Onion prices have doubled and even tripled in many cities over the past few weeks, going for anything from Rs 60 to Rs 100 a kilogram, much to the dismay of consumers. The price of onions has become symbolic. Onion is an important part of the common man’s food. The increased prices have eaten into the budget of consumers and many have forsworn the beloved bulb for now. With onion prices skyrocketing, the usual blame game among political parties has begun. The rise in the onion prices has once again led to mud-slinging among political parties. Onions in India have been witnessing an upswing in their prices on a regular basis for quite a long time. It is welcome decision by our PM Modi government to swing into action by banning the export of onions and imposing stock limits on onion traders to prevent hoarding to artificially drive prices up. This is for the first time in the last 50 years the prices have gone up because of the irregular rains, which have destroyed the onion crops. Prices of essential commodities have generally been on the rise, thanks to a combination of factors, including repeated hikes in fuel prices and flood damage to crops.

Onions have hogged the headlines as a vegetable without substitute in Indian cuisines but consumers have been hit just as hard by the steady rise in the prices of all food items. Every time onion price hikes revisit the country, economists and policymakers debate as to what triggers the periodic upswing. In this scenario, the government needs to come up with something more than quick-fix solutions. Although inflation is good sign for rising economy but certain items should be kept out of this like common food items which is part of the main recipe of any meals. It is observed that the Jains and some Brahmins apt to avoid it. Though onion consumption varies in different parts of the country, it is commonly used for cooking, indeed to enhance the taste of an item. Roti with onions is the fasten food of the poor in the absence of green vegetables. The rise in onion prices comes at a turbulent time for the economy, which has slowed down. The continuous price rise has eaten largely into every body’s income except that of the rich. Instead of letting food grains rot in godowns, it must expand and strengthen the public distribution system as a way of providing food security for the poorer sections. It is also seen that Onion production in India is carried out mostly by small and marginal farmers and hence fiscally incapable of manipulating market supplies.

Inflation fight needs not just anti-hoarding measures, but reducing middleman control. Onion is an important part of the common man’s food. The government needs to deal with the hoarders firmly. Farmers are frustrated over the unpredictability of prices. Last year, due to a glut in production, onion prices dropped to one rupee a kilogram in some places, prompting some farmers to burn their crops in protest. If government data on onion production from the past five years is analysed, it can be seen that onion production in 2019 nearly halved in comparison to 2018. The uncontrolled price of onions is frustrating. Though its consumption varies in different parts of the country, it is commonly used for cooking, indeed to enhance the taste of an item. It is the common man who is forced to bear the brunt of the price rise. Indeed, a day may come when onions become as costly as gold jewellery. The common man is wondering whether the onion shortage is the result of excessive rain or whether it is a conspiracy of corrupt politicians and unscrupulous traders. There needs to be a consumer resistance. The price of onions might drop if people don’t buy it for some time. The government needs to stabilise prices. They should make storage facilities and set a minimum price for farmers, Unless the government puts an end to the export of foodstuff such as rice, dal, sugar and vegetables, Indians will continue to pay a high price for their daily meal.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Letters to the Editor: 06 December, 2019

By

Web Team

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December 6, 2019

Lawmakers must not endorse mob lynching

It was appalling to see a Rajya Sabha MP demanding the public lynching of the rapists of the veterinarian in Hyderabad. Lawmakers cannot normalize a crime like mob lynching by endorsing it especially at a time when it is plaguing the nation at large. The commoners have faith in the judiciary to render justice to the rape victims. Our democracy should not be reduced to a mobocracy.

Adrian David

Massive review without substance

As in the past, the change in chair is just causing delay in administration as Uddhav Thackeray is trying to make mole out mountain and it appears rather childish. This is due to insistence of the coalition partners. If Shiv Sena is going to act as a fact finding committee for the rest of the year, the state will go backward only. Already, BMC is suffering at the hands of Sena with its dialysis unit shut down and already claimed one victim. The Corporation failed to prevent dog menace and mosquito menace is causing number of malaria and dengue cases in the state. Even the BMC hospitals are ill equipped to treat serious cases. Why then this Kolaveri di to stop payments for all the developmental work. Both BMC and the state should not suffer under the hands of Sena.

Calicut Krishnan Ramani

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Cyber crime is on rise in India and cops have edges in detection

By

Vaidehi Taman

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December 5, 2019

Need, joblessness, frustration, stress and greed opens the doors to cyber crime. Social media is playing an emergent role in cyber crime this year. Not only does cyber crime leave a mark financially, but it also has a significant impact on an organization’s services, reliability, and reputation in the eyes of the public, shareholders, and even your own employees. Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The same has recently happened with a Thane resident Ayman Khan, he was sent a link by an agency claiming to give him job. He provided them all the personal and bank details, with in no time his account was emptied. He is running pins to polls but detection of cyber crime takes a lot of time. In such crime, hacker’s e-mail directs the user to visit a web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organisation already has. The website, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. By spamming large groups of people, the phisher counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers legitimately. Cyber crimes in India almost doubled in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The data comes in the backdrop of India aspiring to become a trillion dollar digital economy. Interestingly, cyber crimes accounted for less than a percentage (0.43%) or 21,796 cases of a total of 50, 07,044 cognizable crimes in 2017. In 2019 these crimes have gone up by 20 per cent. When a crime happens, we all want cops to act swiftly but there are limitations. Cyber crimes against children and women account for about 30 per cent and are growing at 100 per cent every year. Phishing is also on the rise, little negligence and you get looted. Of late people have started reporting such crimes; in most case, the accused is known to the victim. Cases of cyber crimes have increased in the last five years. Significantly, the Centre has been focusing, during this period, on improving internet penetration in the country. Offenders are now using technology to get close to targets. From job traps to rapes to child trafficking to selling contraband (drugs) near schools and colleges, these predators befriend their targets mostly on social media. Most cases go undetected as multinational internet giants and social media companies refuse to share information with the police. In most cases, it takes a lot of time just to get the information as the police and cyber cell officials need to trace the IP addresses and get hold of the devices (laptops, computers, mobile phones etc), involved in the crime. In most cases, the IPs are located in some other country. Technology evolution and innovation make it more challenging to detect cyber crimes. Information sharing between countries and within the country needs to be strengthened. The low detection of cyber crimes is also due to lack of technical knowledge among the police staff and that there should be more training centres and courses so that they can upgrade themselves.

With the Centre scrambling to fortify India’s cyber operations amid growing warnings of malware attacks on personal and organisational devices, intelligence and cyber law experts have said much like crimes against women, India suffers from dismal under-reporting of cyber crimes. India recorded 9,622, 11,592 and 12,317 cases of cyber crime in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The data for 2017 comes after a two-year delay, with the Centre blaming states for the delay in providing statistics for compilation. With the Centre setting up the NIC-CERT–National Informatics Centre-Computer Emergency Response Team to combat cyber crimes and the Home Ministry proposing to set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the government is hoping to beef up India’s cyber security network. The advancement of technology has made man dependent on Internet for all his needs. Internet has given man easy access to everything while sitting at one place. Social networking, online shopping, storing data, gaming, online studying, online jobs, every possible thing that man can think of can be done through the medium of internet. Internet is used in almost every sphere. With the development of the internet and its related benefits also developed the concept of cyber crimes. Cyber crimes are committed in different forms. A few years back, there was lack of awareness about the crimes that could be committed through internet. In the matters of cyber crimes, India is also not far behind from the other countries where the rate of incidence of cyber crimes is also increasing day by day. There are millions of websites; all hosted on servers abroad, that offer online gambling. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts for money laundering. Cases of hawala transactions and money laundering over the Internet have been reported. Whether these sites have any relationship with drug trafficking is yet to be explored.

The Recent Indian case about cyber lotto was very interesting. A man called Kola Mohan invented the story of winning the Euro Lottery. He himself created a website and an email address on the Internet with the address ‘eurolottery@usa.net.’ Whenever accessed, the site would name him as the beneficiary of the 12.5 million pounds. After confirmation, a Telugu newspaper published this as a news. He collected huge sums from the public as well as from some banks for mobilization of the deposits in foreign currency. However, the fraud came to light when a cheque discounted by him with the Andhra Bank for Rs 1.73 million bounced. Mohan had pledged with Andhra Bank the copy of a bond certificate purportedly issued by Midland Bank, Sheffields, London stating that a term deposit of 12.5 million was held in his name. This connotes the usage by an unauthorized person of the Internet hours paid for by another person. In May 2000, the Economic Offences Wing, IPR section crime branch of Delhi police registered its first case involving theft of Internet hours. In this case, the accused, Mukesh Gupta an engineer with Nicom System (P) Ltd. was sent to the residence of the complainant to activate his Internet connection. However, the accused used Col. Bajwa’s login name and password from various places causing wrongful loss of 100 hours to Col. Bajwa.

Delhi police arrested the accused for the theft of Internet time. On further inquiry in the case, it was found that Krishan Kumar, son of an ex army officer, working as a senior executive in M/s Highpoint Tours & Travels had used Col Bajwa’s login and passwords as many as 207 times from his residence and twice from his office. He confessed that Shashi Nagpal, from whom he had purchased a computer, gave the login and password to him. The police could not believe that time could be stolen. They were not aware of the concept of time-theft at all. The Commissioner of Police, Delhi then took the case into his own hands and the police under his directions raided and arrested Krishan Kumar under sections 379, 411, 34 of IPC and section 25 of the Indian Telegraph Act. In another case, the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police arrested a computer engineer who got hold of the password of an Internet user, accessed the computer and stole 107 hours of Internet time from the other person’s account. He was booked for the crime by a Delhi court during May 2000. Cops are solving the cases which are local and have some clues but from unknown attacks, one needs patience and cops need a lot of time and leg work. Only thing that can prevent you is be smart while sharing your details online.

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