19-yr-old gets death penalty for murder

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A sessions court in Kochi on Friday sentenced a 19-year-old to death for killing an advocate in whose office he was employed.

Principal sessions judge D Pappachan said despite the faith reposed in him by his employer advocate A P Abraham, accused Amalraj had executed the crime in the most cruel and inhuman manner.

The court also handed down double life imprisonments to his accomplices, Rajesh and Shimon.

Abraham, 78, was found dead in his office on July 13, 2007. He had been strangled with a rope the night before and given electric shocks with a live wire.

Amalraj had cheated Abraham and withdrawn over Rs 8 lakh from his account using blank cheques. When he felt that Abraham had come to know of his mischief, Amalraj decided to kill his employer. He roped in professional hitmen for the job.

The court concluded that it was the lust for money that made Amalraj commit murder.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/19-yr-old_gets_death_penalty_for_murder/rssarticleshow/2947871.cms

3 cops dismissed for raping minor

Kanchan Vasdev
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 12

The Punjab police today dismissed three cops, including an international powerlifter, for allegedly raping a minor girl in Rakh Bagh late last night, holding her helpless boyfriend hostage.

Bringing shame to men in khaki, one of the accused was donning the police uniform.

SSP R.K. Jaiswal said the cops had no right to wear the uniform after they had dishonoured it with their highly condemnable act. The four were supposed to keep an eye on illegal activities and not to commit such ghastly acts.

The incident could have been avoided had the police taken action on a Tribune report last month which narrated how stalkers in police uniform were molesting girls and extorting money from their boyfriends in different parks of the city.

Jaiswal said he had dismissed ASI Inderjeet Singh, Gurmel Singh, cook, and Hari Ram, class IV employee, for the heinous rape "that had put the entire police department to shame" without even putting them under suspension and holding an inquiry against the allegations.

The trio was arrested in the morning today within 12 hours of the registration of a case against them under Section 376, IPC, last night. The case was registered on the statement of the girl, who is a student of class X.

The SSP said medical examination of the girl had established that she was raped. The clothes of the victim and accused had been recovered for chemical and forensic examination.

Narrating the sequence of events, as stated by the girl, he said ASI Inderjeet was on PCR duty and had parked his motorbike on the road near the Sutlej Club. Meanwhile, Gurmel Singh and Hari Ram were coming from the temple side. The three got together and took the girl in the corner near the gymnasium. Then they raped her one after the other.

"We are collecting evidence against the accused so that they are convicted. I will not spare any black sheep in the police department. It is really a shame that the ASI, who was the beat in charge and was wearing a uniform, raped a minor girl. I cannot spare him," said the SSP.

The girl was allegedly raped last night when she was sitting in the park with her boyfriend. She was raped for one hour by the trio. The matter came to light when some evening walkers spotted her crying inconsolably last evening. They took her to the deputy commissioner's residence that is just a few metres from Rakh Bagh. It was after the intervention of DC that the police swung into action immediately.

Kin desert victim

The rape victim was deserted by her relatives in Guru Nanakpura after the rape incident yesterday. She has been sent to Nari Niketan at Jalandhar by the Ludhiana police. The police said she belonged to Lucknow and was staying with a relative, Vinod Kumar, at Guru Nanakpura. He refused to support her anymore.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080413/main2.htm

Man gets 10-yr RI for minor's rape

13 Apr 2008, 0046 hrs IST,TNN

NEW DELHI: Terming it as an act of a "perverse mind", a sessions court in Delhi has convicted a man who raped a 14-year-old girl in the presence of her family members. The court has sentenced him to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI).

"Sexual offence is altogether a different kind of crime which normally is a result of a perverse mind. A rapist degrades and defiles the soul of a helpless female and the impact is much more when such an offence is committed in the presence of other members of her family," additional sessions judge (ASJ) Dinesh Kumar Sharma observed in a recent order while convicting the accused.

The court held one Santosh (26), guilty under sections 376 (rape), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The ASJ also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict, apart from the prison sentence, and ordered that in case he fails to deposit the fine he would have to undergo an additional six months' imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, on September 24, 2004, Santosh, who was known to the victim, entered her Mukherjee Nagar residence in north Delhi and then raped her. Her cries for help brought the family members of the victim to the room and when they tried to prevent the brutal act, Santosh stabbed her mother with a knife. The accused also threatened all of them to remain mum about the incident and warned of dire consequences, the prosecution alleged.

"The courts have been bestowed a duty to implement the application of law and the object of framing of law is to protect the society and deter the criminals. The courts can achieve this object only by awarding appropriate sentence," the judge reasoned while sentencing Santosh to a 10-year term, looking at the brutality of the offence.

The prosecution submitted that the medical examination confirmed that Santosh had sexually assaulted the girl. "Keeping in view the facts and circumstances in mind, I am of the firm opinion that the prosecution has been able to prove its charges against Santosh beyond reasonable doubts," the ASJ noted.

In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined 13 witnesses including the victim herself and her family members.

toireporter@timesgroup.com
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Man_gets_10-yr_RI_for_minors_rape/articleshow/2947924.cms

ASI gets 3 years’ RI in bribery case

Staff Reporter, NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police officer was sentenced to a three-year rigorous imprisonment on Friday for taking a bribe of Rs.2,000 to intervene in a property dispute. Special Judge A. S. Yadav also slapped a fine of Rs.20,000 on Assistant Sub-Inspector Mahipal Singh. The court said the punishment needed to be deterrent in nature.

Plot of land

ASI Mahipal was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi Police on November 11, 2002, when he was allegedly accepting the bribe from complainant Mohammad Zakir. Zakir had bought a plot of land from his uncle Abdul Gaffar in 2000. However, on October 28, 2002, Gaffar’s sons allegedly beat up Zakir threatening him with dire consequences if he did not relinquish the plot. Zakir reported the matter to the Chandni Mahal police station where ASI Singh was assigned the case. However, ASI Singh demanded Rs.5,000 from Zakir for taking action in the case. When Zakir expressed his inability to pay the amount, he asked for Rs.2,000.

http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/05/stories/2008040554160400.htm

Two years’ RI for stealing power

Staff Reporter, NEW DELHI: A special court at Vikaspuri in the Capital dealing with electricity-related cases has sentenced the owner of a plastic factory to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and slapped an additional fine of Rs.82.46 lakh on him for stealing electricity.

According to the power distribution company BRPL, Puram Singh had been caught by an enforcement team stealing over 69 kW of power for running his mid-sized plastic factory at Ranholla in Nangloi. Subsequently a penalty of Rs.27.48 lakh – as per the provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003, was levied on him. When he failed to deposit the penalty, BSES filed a case in the special court in December 2006.

“The court also noted that stealing heavy loads of electricity makes electricity a costly affair for law-abiding citizens. The court also refused to show leniency to the accused in this social crime. This is not the first time that Puram Singh was caught stealing power. In the past two years he has been caught stealing power on seven occasions. Several cases are going on against him,” said a BSES official.

According to the discom officials, “rampant power theft is being reported from the plastic factories – most of them illegal and operating in the areas of Ranholla, Kamruddin, Vishnu Garden, Khyala and adjoining areas. Over the last few months, in a massive crackdown on power theft in these areas, BRPL enforcement teams unearthed a power theft load of over a whopping 10,000 kW and booked over 510 cases”.

http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/05/stories/2008040553750400.htm

98 corrupt cops caught on tape, suspended

Sunday, April 06, 2008

New Delhi, India: The Delhi Traffic Police suspended 98 policemen filmed on video accepting bribes from Blueline bus operators.

The policemen were suspended after a vigilance department probe identified the policemen in the videotapes, in line with an order from the Delhi High Court.

Separately, departmental enquiries have been ordered against 10 traffic inspectors and they have been asked to explain why the men reporting to them openly accepted bribes.

Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said 11 sub-inspectors (SI), 11 assistant sub-inspectors (ASI), 10 head constables and 66 constables have been suspended.

The policemen were filmed taking money in a sting operation carried out by Chetan Prakash — a west Delhi property dealer — after a Blueline bus owner approached him for help.

The sting was carried out at 23 traffic intersections between September 12 and December 2 last year. Hindustan Times first reported the case last year.

The shots were taken at Dabri-Janakpuri junction, Sagarpur, Lajwantipul, Gopinath, Polo Ground, Dhaula Kuan, Satya Niketan, Moti Bagh Pul, RK Puram, Bhikajikama Place, Safdarjung, AIIMS, South Extension, Andrews Gunj, Moolchand flyover, Lajpat Nagar, Maharani Bagh, Sarai Kale Khan, Jahangirpuri Bypass, Haiderpur Naher, Mangolpuri Piragarhi and Dwarka.

Prakash’s lawyer had told the court the extent of the areas involved clearly showed it was an organised extortion racket in Delhi, as every bus on any route had to pass at least one of the traffic intersections where the sting was carried out.

The High Court had asked the commissioner of police and the Ministry of Home Affairs to conduct a probe in the case. This is not the first time Prakash conducted a sting operation and submitted it in the Delhi High Court.

Apart from the 98 traffic policemen, 59 policemen have been suspended in the last three years after Prakash filmed them taking bribe from bootleggers.

http://www.keralanext.com/India/read.asp?id=1207750

Ketan Parekh, Hiten Dalal get 1-year RI

Express News Service

Posted online: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 at 2301 hrs

New Delhi, April 1: A special court (for Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities Act) today sentenced stock brokers Ketan Parekh and Hiten Dalal, along with four others, to one year rigorous imprisonment each, while two other accused were sentenced to six months simple imprisonment in the 1992 security scam case. However, Justice V M Kanade extended their bails till July 31, to facilitate their appeal in the Supreme Court. The stock brokers, along with top officers of Canfina, Bangalore, were convicted on March 7 in a Rs 47 crore securities fraud for “entering into a criminal conspiracy to dishonestly siphon off the funds of Canbank Financial Services (Canfina) in 1991-92”. This was the case where Parekh’s name surfaced for the first time. “Had he been convicted and jailed earlier, he would not have committed other offences”, Justice Kanade said, referring to Parekh’s role in later scams.

While the court awarded one year RI to Hiten Dalal, S K Jhaveri, Pallav Seth, Ketan Parekh, former Canfina assistant vice-president M K Ashok Kumar and former CBMF general manager in Mumbai B R Acharya, , the other two accused — broker Navinchandra Parekh and former Canfina assistant-vice president Sainath Mohan — were given six months’ simple imprisonment. The court, however acquitted former Canfina assistant vice-president N Balasubramaniam, the then CBMF assistant GM in Mumbai P J Subbarao and Vysya Bank scale-II officer B V Srinivasan as the charges against them had not been established.

Parekh’s lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani pleaded for a lenient sentence, arguing that his client and others were “small fries” and that such a scam “was not possible without the connivance of top financial officers”, who were never caught. Jethmalani added that since all the money had eventually been returned to Canfina, there was no actual loss. CBI prosecutors V G Pradhan and R S Mhamane, however, argued that the money which was wrongfully diverted consisted of “public funds and the court should award the maximum sentence prescribed so that the temptation to commit such offences would be rooted out”. Speaking to reporters later, Pradhan said that the sentences were “inadequate” and that he would advise the CBI to file an appeal for enhancement.

During conviction, the court held that all the convicted accused “executed three bogus fictitious and non-existent transactions on October 10 and October 22, 1991, and January 16, 1992, involving funds in the said transactions and diverted funds from Canfina to Canbank Mutual Fund (CBMF) and criminally misappropriated the proceeds”. The court observed that these proceeds had been diverted to the accounts of the accused brokers Hiten Dalal, S K Jhaveri, Pallav Seth, Ketan Parekh and Navinchandra Parekh. The court observed that these stock brokers had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused Sainath Mohan, Ashok Kumar, and B R Acharya.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/291256.html