D-aide held guilty of killing girlfriend

Naziya Alvi, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, February 16, 2008

A lot of you may not be able to place this man. He is Romesh Sharma. And he was accused of ordering the murder of his live-in, a woman called Kunjum Budhiraja in 1999. He was found guilty as accused on Friday.

Sharma is the closest Delhi got to have a Mumbai-style don — he had worked with Vardaraja Mudaliar and Dawood Ibrahim. But he turned into a full-time, but lowly, trickster and politician.

At the time of Kunjum’s death, Sharma was in Tihar in connection with one of the 15 cases against him: of criminal intimidation, cheating and grabbing property. He has an earlier conviction for violation of foreign currency rules.

He had ordered the hit from Tihar as she had apparently become a little too demanding for him — a big house in south Delhi and ornaments were perhaps not enough. So the don sent in his hired killers.

Sharma’s men took an unsuspecting Kunjum to his farmhouse in Chhattarpur — called Jai Mata Di — saying there was a puja she must attend. Inside, she was stabbed to death. Sharma was, of course, in jail.

A good alibi, it was suitably bolstered by the cheat with one last act. In a great show of grief, he draped the body in a red sari and put sindoor on her forehead. But no one was fooled. He was shortly charged with Kunjum’s murder.

Sharma had come a long way from selling coat hangers in Connaught Place. His ambition was to make it big and he was in a hurry — landed right in the middle of Mumbai’s gangland. He worked with Mudaliar and then, after the don’s death, joined the then rising star Dawood Ibrahim. He returned to Delhi as Dawood’s man in the Capital paying off politicians, fixing deals.

Soon, he floated a political party and contested elections. But politics is not easy. He lost.

But he refused to return a helicopter he had borrowed from a private firm for campaigning. When the company officials came for the helicopter, Sharma’s goons beat them up. He was arrested and the helicopter was returned to its owners.

Five other people were found guilty in the Kunjum murder case — his nephew Surinder Mishra, associate Tejender Virdi and the three hitmen Hemchand, Ramesh and Santram. All of them will be sentenced on Monday.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=3e851df7-aff8-4f42-ab12-076447d0652c&&Headline=D-aide+held+guilty+of+killing+girlfriend

RJD MP Pappu Yadav gets life term for murder

Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna
February 14, 2008 13:10 IST

A Patna court on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Pappu Yadav and former Member of Legislative Assembly Rajan Tiwari for the murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Ajit Sarkar.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge B M Srivastava sentenced Pappu Yadav, Rajan Tiwari and another accused Anil Yadav to life imprisonment after finding them guilty under Sections 302, 307 and others of the Indian Penal Code.

Earlier this month, the court had completed the final hearing in the Ajit Sarkar murder case and fixed February 14 as the date for the pronouncement of its verdict.

Pappu Yadav, currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, was brought to Patna for the pronouncement of the judgment. Yadav had urged the trial court to pronounce the judgment via video conferencing, but the court ordered him to be present on February 14.

During the trial, the CBI produced 61 witnesses in support of its case, while 27 witnesses were produced by the accused in their defence.

Sarkar, a legislator from Purnea, was shot dead by men allegedly acting on Yadav's orders on June 14, 1998.

Yadav was shifted to the high-security Tihar jail in 2005 from Patna after allegedly violating prison regulations during his stay in Beur Jail. Tiwari, a former legislator from Govindganj, is currently lodged in Beur Jail.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/feb/14pappu.htm

Scientist gets 2-year RI over forged caste certificate

xpress news service

Posted online: Sunday , February 03, 2008 at 01:26:58
Updated: Sunday , February 03, 2008 at 01:44:14

New Delhi, February 2 A court today sentenced a 45-year-old scientist to two years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) for cheating the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) authorities by furnishing a forged caste certificate for securing a job. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Kanwaljeet Arora held Sher Singh, working as Grade-B scientist at NPL, guilty under Sections 420 (cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of IPC. He also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances, I am of the opinion that the prosecution has been able to prove its charges against Singh and accordingly sentenced him to two years’ RI which best suited to his crime,” the ACMM said in a recent order.

The CBI alleged in the chargesheet that after getting a computer engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering in 1995, Singh cheated NPL authorities for getting appointment as scientist-B, under ST category, on the basis of his forged certificate. Singh allegedly got the job solely on the relaxed criteria, as he was the only candidate who had applied for the job under ST category. It was purportedly issued by Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Shahadara in 1992.

Singh, in his defence, failed to prove on record that he belongs to Scheduled Tribe category. After evading arrest for a long time, Singh was finally apprehended on February 2004, at Raja Sansi Airport in Amritsar.

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Scientist-gets-2year-RI-over-forged-caste-certificate/268463/

Kandahar hijack: 3 sentenced to life

DH News Service, Chandigarh:

Nine years after the infamous hijack drama enacted at the Afghan city of Kandahar, three conspirators who provided logistic support to the Pakistani hijackers have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court at Patiala, 60 km from here on Tuesday.

A special court of judge Inderjit Singh Walia has held Abdul Latif, Yusuf Nepali and Dalip Kumar guilty of abeting the hijackers by arranging arms and ammunition and providing fake passports to them. The judge awarded life sentence to them.

None of the five hijackers, believed to be of Pakistani origin, could ever be nabbed as the then Taliban regime in Afghanistan did not detain them after the resolution of the eight-day long siege of the aircraft in Kandahar. The three conspirators convicted to life on Tuesday were arrested in 2001. A prolonged trial ensued during which 120 witnesses were examined. They were among the 10 persons against whom the CBI had registered a case of abettment of hijackers. The remaining seven still remain absconding.

The hijack
The Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked by five men after it took off from Kathmandu while on way to Delhi on December 24, 1999. The hijackers forced the flight, with 189 passengers and crew on board, to take a detour to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The eight-day long siege of the aircraft along with the Indian passengers ended after India conceded to the hijackers' demand for the release of three top militants, including the dreaded chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit Maulana Masood Azhar imprisoned in jail at Jammu at that time.

The then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh had himself flown the three prisoners to Kandahar on a chartered plane for the hijackers to set free the passengers and permit the aircraft to leave Kandahar. One passenger Ripun Katyal was killed on board by the hijackers.

Azhar along with two other released prisoners, Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Sheikh went to Pakistan where Azhar floated Jaish outfit which was later involved in the attacks on Indian Parliament and the J and K assembly.
Sheikh was later sentenced to death in Pakistan for his role in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Backlog of court cases in India as of Dec 2005

Sub-ordinate courts 26.0 million (2.6 crores)
Magistrate courts 1.6 million (16 lakhs)
High courts 3.5 million (35 lakhs)
Supreme courts 0.3 million (3 lakhs)

Sex Doc gets life in jail, his 3 employees 7 yrs

Express News Service

Posted online: Friday, February 08, 2008 at 0008 hrs

Chennai, February 7: A fast-track court on Thursday sentenced Dr L Prakash to life term for his involvement in a cyber pornography racket. The court had convicted Dr Prakash on Wednesday, finding him guilty of offences under the Information Technology Act, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

Dr Prakash was arrested in December 2001 following a complaint by a Puducherry youth that he had been forced to commit sexual acts with women, which were filmed and later posted on websites hosted by the doctor. Prakash was sentenced to life under Section 6 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the maximum punishment for offences relating to detaining persons for the purposes of prostitution.

Fast-track court Judge R Radha also slapped a fine of Rs 1, 27,000 on Dr Prakash. He was sentenced to a 10-year rigorous imprisonment under Section 367 of the IPC (abduction), five years under Section 67 of the IT Act,two years under Section 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act and another seven years RIunder Section 27 of the Arms Act.

The stringent anti-trafficking law--the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act--was enforced against Dr Prakash based on evidence that proved that many young women were detained in his farm house at Kalanjikuppam in neighbouring Thiruvallur district and forced to have sex. The sexual acts were photographed and filmed and posted on websites or sold as CDs abroad.

Dr Prakash was sentenced under the Arms Act for threatening to kill a girl who refused to comply with his demands. In addition to the prison terms, the doctor was also fined with varying amounts.

Three others, staff members who had worked in his clinic and convicted, including ward boy Saravanan, his driver Vijayan and X-ray technician Asir Gunasingh, were sentenced to seven years in prison each for their involvement in abduction, cyber-pornography and indecent representation of women.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/270423.html

Telgi gets 10 years RI

Special Correspondent

Four accomplices get 1 to 5 years

Trial for five others on February 15

CHENNAI: Abdul Karim Telgi, prime accused in the multicrore fake stamp paper case, was found guilty by a Special Court for CBI Cases here and sentenced to a maximum of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. A fine totalling Rs. 3 crore was also imposed on him. Four of his accomplices – Abdul Wahid, C.S Balaji, Jacob Chacko and Peter Kennedy – too were convicted by the court and sentenced to undergo imprisonment ranging from one to five years.

Additional Special Judge for CBI Cases N. Velu asked the State Government to confiscate Rs. 28.75 lakh lying in the bank account of Balaji.

In respect of five other accused – suspended Deputy Inspector-General of Police A.P. Mohammed Ali, Inspector S. Sankar, Nizamuddin, Nazneen and Ramasamy Sadhu – the trial will commence on February 15, as they have pleaded not guilty. Sarfraz Nawaz who had pleaded guilty has already been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years.

For counterfeiting government stamps, Telgi, was awarded 10-year RI and a fine of Rs. 1 crore was imposed. As for the charges of selling counterfeit stamps and cheating, he was awarded two-year RI each, in addition to Rs. 2 crore fine. Noting that the sentences would run concurrently, the Judge said Telgi’s period of imprisonment served in connection with a Pune court order would be set off against the present sentence. As Abdul Wahid and Jacob Chacko too were convicted by the Pune court, their present sentence of five-year of RI each would be set off against the prison term already served. Mr. Velu, noting that the accused were involved in counterfeiting and selling Government stamps, judicial stamp papers, court fee stamps and non-judicial stamp papers, said they cheated the public as well as the Government. He also severely condemned their criminal activities, saying it had jolted the economy.

According to the prosecution, Telgi used to send fake stamp papers by courier or through messengers from Mumbai, and they were stocked on premises in Anna Nagar N. Block and at Shenoy Nagar. Mr. Mohammed Ali and Mr. Sankar, the CBI said, abused their official position and facilitated the sale of fake stamps and stamp papers in Chennai and other areas.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/31/stories/2008013156630100.htm