34 sentenced to life imprisonment in Bihar

Gopalganj/Madhepura, Jul 23

 

At least 34 people were sentenced to life imprisonment today by local courts in connection with three separate cases of murder in Bihar's Madhepura and Gopalganj districts.

 

A fast-track court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Bipin Bihari Mishra held seven persons responsible for thrashing to death two brothers at Amawa Vijaypur village under Kuchaikot Police station in the Gopalganj district on March 30, 1994.
 

Mishra sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment. He also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of the convicts.
 

In Madhepura (rpt) Madhepura district, fast-track court judge Yogesh Narain Singh found 12 persons guilty of murdering Tapeshwar Yadav and Amrendra Yadav at Jeevaspur village under Gamaria police station in the district March 3, 2002.
 

The court awarded life-term to all 12.
 

In another case, the court of Additional District and Sessions judge Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav pronounced 15 people guilty of killing Ramesh Jha at Bela Sadi village in the district on August 18, 1988.
 

Singh sentenced them to life imprisonment.

http://www.lensonnews.com/lensonnews/1/16/4229/1/34-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment-in-bihar.html

Life imprisonment for 16 in Bihar

PTI, July 3, 2011

Sixteen persons were sentenced to life imprisonment by local courts on Saturday in Rohtas and Sitamarhi districts in connection with separate cases related to murder.

A fast-track court judge (Rohtas) Binod Kumar pronounced 14 persons guilty of killing two villagers and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

The court, however, acquitted another person for want of sufficient evidence.

The case related to killing of two persons using sharp-edged weapons at Patnawa village in Rohtas district following old enmity on August 25, 2007.

In Sitamarhi, a local court sentenced two persons to life imprisonment in a murder case.

Fast-track court judge Arvind Kumar held Bharat Mahto and Sheojit Mahto guilty of murdering Falku Mahto and awarded life term to them.

To solve one case, cops trace 40 missing girls

Faizan Haider, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 14, 2011

Over the past 10 days, the Delhi police, infamous for its lackadaisical attitude towards missing persons, have managed to trace and rescue at least 40 girls who had gone missing. These missing girls were found as part of the police’s investigation to identify the skeletal remains of a body found in Vasant Vihar on July 3.

It all started when parents of more than 40 missing girls came to the local police station after reading about the recovered body. Left with no choice, the police investigated each complaint in order to identify the body and traced each of the missing 40 girls.

“In the Vasant Vihar case, we took details from each person who approached us. We began connecting the links and traced more than 40 girls. More girls will be traced as we are contacting parents whose daughters went missing in the last few months,” said a police officer.

“A man contacted us claiming that the body could be of his missing daughter. We started looking for his daughter and found her in UP. Like this, many other girls have been traced and these parents are, in fact, happy that their daughters have been located,” the officer said.

Experts say like the Vasant Vihar case, police should investigate all missing complaints. “Tracing missing persons is not a priority for police. This is exactly what happened in Nithari (where the mutilated bodies of more than 20 children and young women who had gone missing over two years, were found in a drain behind a house while the police had refused to even register the complaints). After this, police were asked to form special squads and take all missing complaints seriously. But we hardly see them doing so. It seems human life is not important,” said Ranjana Kumari, a women right’s activist.

Cases of missing persons in the age group of 16 and 25 are often dismissed as elopments. “If the parents are influential or have contacts at the higher level, their complaints are followed up. The rest are mostly ignored,” said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.

This year, police have failed to trace 30% of the missing persons. Till June 30, 6,395 persons were reported missing. Of these, police were able to trace 4,071 while 2,324 are still untraced.

A senior police officer, however, said missing persons complaint were taken seriously by Delhi Police and the Station House Officers have been told to maintain a register, which has to be reviewed every day.

“Even when a DCP and above level officer visits a police station one of the three registers he scans is of missing persons. The SHO is responsible so he does take the missing person complaints seriously,” he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/newdelhi/To-solve-one-case-cops-trace-40-missing-girls/Article1-721227.aspx

17 yrs on, woman seeks justice for her ‘missing’ son

Harish V Nair, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 14, 2011

Seventeen years after her son went missing from police custody, a 94-year-old woman — Amar Kaur — has pleaded with Delhi high court Chief Justice Dipak Misra to direct the trial court to fast track the case so that she can “die peacefully”. The woman, her body half paralysed besides battling high blood pressure, heart problem and sugar down to serious levels, has been attending court proceedings on stretcher and wheelchair whenever she has been summoned for the past seven years.

The accused in the case are present Punjab vigilance department director SS Saini (then SSP, Ludhiana) and three other junior cops — MS Sandhu, Paramjit Singh and BC Tiwari.

Following the CBI chargesheet, a lower court in 2006 framed charges against them for kidnapping with intention to murder, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy. The trial is on at a Karkardooma court (next hearing July 26). The accused have challenged the charges in the high court and that too is pending (next hearing July 26).

In a telegram dated July 8, 2011, she pleaded: “The case is pending since 17 years. Proceedings are still delayed even though the Delhi high court had earlier ordered and the trial court promised day-to-day hearing. I’m 94 years old and all hopes of getting justice in my lifetime is fading away. Now I’m on my death bed. I implore you to order day-to-day hearing so that my soul may rest in peace.”

The case was transferred to Delhi from Punjab by the Supreme Court in 2004 after Kaur cited Saini’s “ability to influence witnesses” given his powerful position.

Kaur’s son, Vinod Kumar, an automobile businessman, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar, along with their driver Mukhtiyar Singh, had been taken into custody on February 23, 1994, at the Kotwali police station in Ludhiana and had never been seen since then. The CBI claims Saini nursed a grudge against Vinod and booked him under a case of economic offences. A case against Saini and others was registered on orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/17-yrs-on-woman-seeks-justice-for-her-missing-son/Article1-721240.aspx

Dr Death held sway over fake drug empire

TNN Jul 16, 2011, 01.50am IST

NEW DELHI: Three persons were arrested in one of the largest racket of spurious drug production and distribution operating from Delhi and NCR. The gang, headed by a 55-year-old doctor, had been operating for over 5 years and had supplied spurious medicines worth over Rs 8 crore in Delhi and other states.

The accused have been identified as Dr Daya Shankar Mishra (55), Dinesh Sahu (52) and Moti Lal (45). Several members of the gang are on the run and police are yet to identify several chemists who were complicit in the racket, said cops.

The spurious medicine racket, operating in Delhi and Faridabad, blew the lid of a long-drawn interstate nexus between manufacturers, middlemen and chemists who received these drugs. Most of these medicines were sent to Bhagirath Place in Delhi as well as peripheries of others states in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh among others, said crime branch officers.

Fake medicines worth over Rs 24 lakh were seized in the raid, said cops. About 414 boxes of Voveran (pain killer), 1660 boxes of Pan-40 (for gastric acidity), 100 boxes of Taxim O (antibiotic), 160 boxes of Zentel (for intestinal worms), 5kg of loose Ceftum (antibiotic), 250 tablets and 12kg of loose Centum 500 tablets (antibiotic) have been recovered in large quantities, said police. The manufacturing plant with sophisticated machines worth more than Rs 30 lakhs were seized in Faridabad.

"On July 11, based on specific information a trap was laid near the Old Delhi Railway Station and Daya and Dinesh were nabbed. Spurious medicines of 200 boxes (10x10) of Pan-40 and 414 boxes (25x15) of Voveran were seized. A case under relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, Copy Right Act, Trade Mark Act and Indian Penal Code was registered accordingly. On interrogation, Daya revealed that he ran an illegal drug manufacturing unit in Faridabad. His employee Motilal managed the unit for him. His unit produced spurious Pan-40, Taxim O, Zental and Ceftum tablets. He and Dinesh Sahu also procured spurious medicines from Sanjiv Garg and Sunil Sharma. Both are on the run," said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Ashok Chand.

Daya Shankar's manufacturing unit was unearthed at Plot No. 18, Sector 6, Faridabad. Among other machinery, the three main machines seized at the factory were a blister packing machine, a compressor machine and one shrink pack machine, said cops. The blister packing machine is the most expensive and is installed at a cost of over Rs 20 lakh. It packs two aluminium sheets together with the medicine tablets packed in between. The compressor machine is used to make cavities on one side of the aluminium sheets for the tablets to firmly settle into the space for packing. The compressor machine is also used to move the heavy rollers which move on dies to give the tablets their definitive shapes. The shrink pack machine wraps the cellophane sheet around the packets when ready. Different dies and rollers which were used to cast the tablets into various shapes and sizes have also been seized from the illegal factory. A large number of rubber stamps to mark the medicine packets with date of manufacturing, batch number, MRP and expiry date have also been seized. In addition to these, 19 large aluminium foil rolls printed with the names and descriptions of different medicines have been seized. More than 4,250 printed thin cardboard outer boxes used to pack medicines have also been confiscated.

There is a huge difference in the prices of the genuine medicines and that of the spurious medicines, said police.

"During interrogation, it was revealed that Daya and Dinesh sold these spurious medicines through one Ram Ashish in West Bengal, Mannu in Patna, Mandeep Kumar in Ranchi and Mohammed and one Kiran in Hyderabad. All these medicines are sent by courier and private transport to all these places. In Delhi, these medicines find their way into Bhagirath Place through their associate named Kamal alias Laddoo," said DCP Chand.

Police said the gang also supplied spurious Stemetil (antiemetic), Augmentin (antibiotic), Ocid (antacid), Methergine Postpartum (bleeding inhibitor), Omez (antacid) and fake Viagra into the markets in the past 5 years, said cops. Some of these medicines are very expensive and the racketeers minted money by pumping these spurious medicines into the markets all over the country.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-16/delhi/29781539_1_spurious-medicines-tablets-manufacturing-unit

No bail for power thieves without paying penalty

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, June 20, 2011

A special court last week denied bail to four persons accused of power theft, until the  full penalty for their offence was paid. Additional sessions judge VK Goel of the electricity court in Rohini sent the four to prison after separate FIRs were registered against them at two police stations, in Maurya Enclave and Adarsh Nagar, following complaints against them from Tatas-run power distribution company North Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL).

The accused — Yashpal, Nanhe Lal, Pale and Ravi — were produced before the court, where the judge said electricity theft was a serious offence and merely paying half the penalty — which is the practice — did not qualify for bail. “We hope such stringent judicial and police action against power thieves will act as a deterrent and also send a strong message to people who steal electricity,” an NDPL spokesperson said.

Pale and Ravi will now have to pay a penalty amount of Rs32,318 by July 10, while Yashpal and Nanhe Lal have been directed to stump up Rs1,51,110.

Earlier last week, another electricity court ordered the attachment of property of three offenders because they did not pay the penalty amounts.

Of the cases of power theft coming to light every year, the areas covered by BSES Rajdhani (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna (BYPL) saw 996 instances where “power thieves” had opted for amicable settlements with the discoms by paying penalty amounts agreed upon mutually. Trouble began when several of these “reformed thieves” defaulted in paying even the settlement amounts.

Discom BYPL moved court against three such individuals. Subsequently, the court issued the ruling of property attachment (known as Kukri Zabti), the first time in power-theft cases. The three accused are residents of the walled city.

To settle power theft cases amicably, the discoms — NDPL, BYPL and BRPL — hold special sessions called lok adalats, where the cases are arbitrated.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/No-bail-for-power-thieves-without-paying-penalty/Article1-711413.aspx

CP fake encounter: Rs 15 lakh to widows of two victims

Harish V Nair, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 05, 2011

Fourteen years after two Haryana-based businessmen were gunned down in a fake encounter at Connaught Place, the Delhi high court on Monday directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each to their widows - Neema Goyal and Jaspal Kaur. Slamming the Home Ministry and Delhi government for delay in initiating disciplinary action against errant policemen and ordering an inquiry, Justice S Muralidhar said: "It can hardly be a matter of debate that there must be zero tolerance for criminal behaviour by men in uniform entrusted with the task of law enforcement and the protection of the life and liberty of persons."

"Both MHA and GNCTD have to be held answerable and accountable in law for this obvious failure to take prompt disciplinary action against policemen convicted and sentenced for murder of two innocent citizens. The Court is therefore constrained to direct the MHA to institute an appropriate inquiry by a senior level officer not below the rank of additional secretary in the MHA to inquire into the facts and circumstances under which there was delay in taking disciplinary action against the 10 convicted policemen and fix responsibility on the concerned officers," the court added.

"This case serves to highlight the steps that ought to be taken, within the framework of the legal system, in a situation of proven police violence resulting in violation of human rights," added Justice Muralidhar.

The order comes two months after the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence awarded by trial court to former ACP S S Rathi and nine other cops on May 2 for killing Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh claiming they were "gangsters".

Following the order, Neema Goyal said, "Im not happy with Rs 15 lakh compensation. A precious life was lost. My husband was innocent..

The amount is a kind of peanuts. I have spent more than this amount on lawyers."

Goyal and Kaur had moved the Delhi high court for compensation soon after the October 24, 2007 trial court judgment convicting the police officials. The high court had upheld the punishment in September 2009, calling the "unprovoked indiscriminate firing" as "totally unjustified".

On the afternoon of March 31, 1997, a Delhi Police Crime Branch team led by encounter specialist Rathi had fired indiscriminately on a car on the suspicion that the businessmen were wanted Uttar Pradesh-based gangsters.

However, the team ended up gunning down two innocent businessmen.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/CP-fake-encounter-Rs-15-lakh-to-widows-of-two-victims/Article1-717349.aspx

Susairaj a free woman, 10-yr jail for boyfriend Jerome

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, Mumbai, July 01, 2011

Neeraj Grover murdercase co-accused Emile Jerome escorted by police to the court....

more photos »

 

A Mumbai court on Friday sentenced former navy officer Emile Jerome Mathew to 10-year rigorous imprisonment and Kannada actress Maria Monica Susairaj to three years in jail, which she has already served, in the murder case of television executive Neeraj Grover. The actor is likely to be released Saturday morning. Additional sessions judge MW Chandwani had on Thursday acquitted the two of the murder charge.

Mathew, 28, was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and Susairaj, 30, was held guilty of destruction of evidence. “I am blank. How can a person convicted of a crime feel happy about being released?” Maria told HT after the sentencing.

On May 7, 2008, Jerome stabbed Grover in a flat hired by Susairaj in Dheeraj Solitaire building in Malad West. They hacked his body to pieces and disposed the body parts in a forest in adjoining Thane district.

Though the duo was charged with pre-planned murder, conspiracy and destruction of evidence, the trial court held that the media executive’s death was a result of a sudden provocation.

“When he entered the room he was calm. This showed he did not have intention,” Chandwani said while sentencing Jerome. “Obviously for a fiancé, in a situation where he finds a stranger with his partner, would upset a prudent man and he would lose control.”

Jerome will serve seven years as he has remained in jail for more than three years during the trial.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Susairaj-a-free-woman-10-yr-jail-for-boyfriend-Jerome/H1-Article1-715980.aspx