Nasheman News : A Delhi court on Tuesday said it will decide on January 29 whether to summon journalist Priya Ramani or not in the defamation case filed by former Union Minister M.J. Akbar.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal reserved the order after Akbar’s counsel and senior advocate Geeta Luthra and lawyer Sandeep Kapur concluded their arguments on issuing summons to Ramani.

The counsel told the court that Ramani had damaged Akbar’s reputation which he had built up over the years through hard work.

He said Ramani’s defamatory statements had lowered Akbar’s esteem in the public eye.

The journalist in a tweet posted with an article in October 2018 wrote: “I began this piece with my M.J. Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t ‘do’ anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator — maybe they’ll share.”

Akbar’s counsel told the court that Ramani was wrong to make this allegation as she had accepted that Akbar did not do anything to her.

Ramani’s language was extremely defamatory, the counsel said, while requesting the court to issue summons against her as an accused in the case.

The court was hearing the defamation case against Ramani filed by the former Minister of State for External Affairs, a journalist-turned-politician, who is now with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Ramani was the first in a long list of women journalists to accuse Akbar of sexual harassment.

The statement of seven witnesses, including Akbar, has been recorded.

A Rajya Sabha member, Akbar has denied all the charges against him as “false, wild and baseless”.

Nasheman News : Posing fresh complications for India, absconder diamantaire Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, has surrendered his Indian citizenship in favour of Antigua & Barbuda Isles in the West Indies, official sources said on Monday.

Choksi, 59, acquired his new citizenship in 2018 and then subsequently deposited his cancelled Indian Passport No. Z3396732 and a mandatory fee of $177 for the other formalities, with the Indian High Commission in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

The Indian High Commission in Cooperative Republic of Guyana is also accredited to the Antigua & Barbuda and St. Kitts & Nevis.

Contacted by media in Mumbai, Choksi’s lawyers declined to comment saying they were no longer in touch with him.

Sources in the national capital said that despite the latest developments, the Indian government will continue its pursuit of Choksi with the government of Antigua & Barbuda through diplomatic and legal channels.

Choksi, along with his 47-year-old nephew Nirav Modi, are among many others charged with conniving with certain bank officials to dupe the PNB of over Rs 13,500 crore by issuing fake Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) to their group companies through the PNB’s flagship Brady House Branch.

The development could present new hassles for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which was hoping for his extradition along with Nirav Modi and other relatives who are believed to be holed up in different countries.

Weeks before, the PNB first admitted to the massive scam on February 14, 2018, Choksi and Modi besides many of their family members had surreptitiously fled the country, virtually catching the investigating agencies napping.

Before the fraud exploded in the public domain, the PNB had already lodged complaints with the Enforcement Director (ED) and the CBI in Mumbai seeking their help.

As per the PNB’s admission, a total of more than 1,200 LoUs were issued to Choksi, Modi and their relatives and group companies with the CBI chargesheet in Mumbai naming them plus other employees, top PNB officials and executives.

The ED and CBI cracked the whip with raids on the homes, offices, factories of all the accused in Maharashtra, Gujarat and other locations in the country, issued Look Out Notices, InterPol Red Corner Notices, suspended the passports of many of the accused, attached their residential business properties, and initiated other measures to pressurise and make them return to face the Indian laws.

In the latest initiative, last weekend, the government dismissed two PNB executive directors K.V. Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan for alleged failure to exercise proper control over the bank’s functioning, procedural lapses by ignoring Reserve Bank Of India’s advisory to link Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) with the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) systems of the bank.

In August 2018, the Centre had sacked Allahabad Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian in connection with the Choksi-Modi frauds when she was serving as the latter’s (PNB’) MD-cum-CEO.

A 22-year-old girl, who refused to withdraw her rape case, was shot dead by Dansing Bar Bouncer Sandeep Kumar, ACP Shamsher Singh of Guru Gramma said.

The corpse of the woman’s body was found at 6.30 pm today, the first phase of the Khushboo Chowk committee. The assassinated woman is a bar dancer in the profession. 

She worked with Sandeep Kumar while working at Night Club. In this case he raped her. In March 2017, she filed a police complaint against him. The Gurgrama police arrested him. The court then granted bail to him. 

 Sandeep Kumar has killed her when she was only a few hours to record her statement in the court. 

According to the mother of the deceased, Sandeep Kumar was kidnapped and killed by a woman. Sandeep throws four bullets on her. The police have been booked and investigated. 

Agencies

Nasheman News : The CBI has registered four more FIRs in the alleged abuse of children in four shelter homes across Bihar, an official said on Thursday

Among those, two shelter homes are in Munger and one each in Gaya and Bhagalpur. The Central Bureau of Investigation registered these FIRs on Wednesday. 

According to the FIR, these shelter homes were being run in violation of provisions of Juvenile Justice Act 2015, besides being involved in financial irregularities. 

On November 28 last year, the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to probe the alleged abuse of inmates at 17 shelter homes in Bihar listed in a study conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The maximum numbers of these shelter homes are for boys. The preliminary enquiry conducted by TISS revealed that the women staffers of these shelter homes asked the boys to send lewd messages to other women.

The TISS had claimed in its report that the boys in the shelter home were forced to work for the Superintendent whose residential quarters were in the same premises.

The CBI on Tuesday had also registered four FIRs against different shelter homes that included the Director of Samaj Samiti Boys’ Children Home in Bhagalpur and DORD Children Home in Gaya for allegedly physically and mentally assaulting the inmates.

These actions are in addition to the CBI’s ongoing probe into the case of sexual exploitation of minor girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home in which the CBI had registers two separate FIRs.

The Muzaffarpur case caught national attention last year after the TISS study highlighted that out of the 42 girls lodged at the short-stay home run by an NGO, 34 were found to have been sexually assaulted. The shelter home was being run by Brajesh Thakur.

An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe was later taken over by the CBI.

Nasheman News : Brandishing knives at passengers, five armed men forced their entry into two Jammu-Delhi Duronto Express coaches early on Thursday and fled with their cash and gold within minutes in the absence of security, railway officials said.

The incident occurred near the Badli area of outer Delhi during an unscheduled stop made just after the train entered the national capital, a passenger said. 

Northern Railway spokesperson Deepak Kumar said the signal system was tampered with as the train came to a sudden halt near Badli in outer Delhi, adding the armed men managed to enter the B3 coach and looted two passengers.

He said General Railway Police (GRP) was recording statements of the passenegers who were robbed, adding it would also take the statement of the TTE and other staff present in the train.

Those robbed in the train were identified as Ashok Kumar and Basant Bhandari, both residents of Jammu. 

The NR spokesperson said the train was not escorted by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff. “The GRP is working with the passengers to get the sketch of suspects,” Deepak Kumar said. He said that the railways has lodged a case against unknown persons under several sections of Indian Penal Code. 

The robbery came to light after Ashwani Kumar, who was travelling from Jammu to Delhi, lodged a complaint through the railways’ complaints portal.

“Today at 3.30 a.m, the train stopped somewhere due to (a) signal problem. Some five unidentified culprits entered coaches B3 and B7. They put their knife on the neck of other passengers and asked them to provide whatever expensive items they were carrying. 

“They took their purses, cash, carry bags, gold chain and other things. It was all over within 10-15 minutes,” said Ashwani Kumar in his complaint.

“The irony was that neither the staff nor security personnel were available at the time of the incident.”

“The RPF has some initial leads in the case… We will be able to catch the culprits soon,” Deepak Kumar said.

A special court in Panchkula will pronounce the sentence on Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others in the journalist murder case through video conferencing on Thursday.

The CBI court on Wednesday accepted the plea of Haryana government which had sought appearance of the 51-year-old sect head through video conferencing during the pronouncement of quantum of sentence for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, said CBI Counsel HPS Verma.

On January 11, Special CBI Court Judge Jagdeep Singh had convicted the self-styled godman and three others – Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal – in the murder case.

All the four were convicted under Section 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal were also convicted under the Arms Act.

The state government had filed the plea on Tuesday, citing that the movement of Dera chief could lead to law and order situation.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year prison term in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail for raping two of his women followers.

Verma said counsels of all the four convicts will be in present in the court when the quantum of sentence will be pronounced.

The Haryana Police has beefed up security around the Sunariya jail in Rohtak where Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been lodged.

Police said about 800 personnel have been deployed in Rohtak.

Police has also intimated its cyber cell to keep a tab on the social media to prevent spreading of rumours and fake messages pertaining to Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

Similar arrangements are in place in Panchkula where the special court will pronounce the quantum of punishment. Section 144 has been imposed and total 14 barriers have been created at various places in the district.

About 1,000 police personnel have been deployed at various places in Panchkula besides one company of rapid action force (RAF).

The journalist was killed in Haryana’s Sirsa city in 2002 after his newspaper published a letter alleging sexual exploitation of women by the self-styled godman.

Chhatrapati was shot outside his house in October 2002 after his newspaper ”Poora Sach” published an anonymous letter narrating the alleged sexual exploitation of women followers by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.

The Dera chief was named as the main conspirator in the case.

Chhatrapati’s family had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2003, seeking transfer of the case to the CBI.

The investigation was later handed over to the CBI which filed a charge sheet in July 2007.

Agencies

Nasheman News :  A 21-year-old Israeli student was killed in Australia’s Melbourne city while she was on a video call with her sister, police said on Thursday.

Aiia Maasarwe, an Arab-Israeli student who was in Melbourne as part of her studies at Shanghai University, was attacked on Wednesday morning, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Her body was found by passers-by near a tram stop in the northern suburb of Bundoora.

Homicide investigators believe she was assaulted and killed in a random attack shortly after getting off the number 86 tram, just over a kilometre from her home.

She was returning from a show at The Comics Lounge in North Melbourne.

Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said Maasarwe was talking to her sister, who is overseas, at about 12.10 a.m. (Wednesday) when it is believed she was attacked on the pavement less than 50 metres from the tram stop.

“The phone then appeared to fall to the ground and she couldn’t contact her. We think that’s the time.

“She heard the sound of the phone falling to the ground and heard some voices and that was it,” Stamper told the media on Thursday.

Maasarwe’s sister tried to call her back but was unable to reach her.

Stamper said some of Maasarwe’s belongings had been found in a park opposite where her body was found.

Two different items of clothing were also found nearby – a black baseball cap with 1986 written across the front, and a grey and black t-shirt 

The police are also investigating whether she was sexually assaulted before the murder.

Customs Department officials at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Tuesday were successful in nabbing four passengers returning to the country with a total of 700 gm of gold as they were being smuggled, reports said. The worth of the gold seized on Tuesday alone amounts to Rs 23.19 lakh.

In the first instance a total of 496 gm of gold were found in the rectum of three women in the wee hours of Tuesday. According to officials, the three Tamil origin woman flying from Colombo in a Sri Lankan Airlines flight were detained after suspicion. Later on detailed examination, it was found that the trio had collectively put gold paste covered with plastic sheaths in their rectum.

The women were hoping to pass through the metal detectors as the metal was in the form of a paste but were under the radar during passenger profiling. When they grew suspicious, the officials questioned them and later a medical examination proved their suspicion to be right.

In a separate incident, one flier of Andhra Pradesh origin was caught with 200 gm of gold strapped in his body as he reached Bengaluru from Kuwait in an Emirates flight, Incidents like this have been repeating for some time now.

In another incident which came to light in December 30, 2018, a total of 4.4 kg of gold worth Rs 1.45 crore concealed in private parts was seized from three persons flying in from Dubai including one woman from Sudan based on a tip-off.

That time too, gold was hidden in the rectum in the form of pieces from a Kerala man who was headed to his hometown.

The woman from Sudan had 1.3 kg of gold biscuits hidden in her private parts in the form of biscuits while 1.4 kg of gold in the same form was found in his denim shorts which he was wearing under his trousers.

Police arrested a man for luring and cheating at least 16 women — all widows and divorcees — from across the state by promising marriage.  D M Ramakrishna, 46, not only cheated each woman of money, but also had physical relationships with a few. 

The number of victims could further increase as the Seshadripuram police could arrest the culprit only recently. Ramakrishna had been trapping vulnerable widows and divorcees since 2006.

“We are in the process of verifying cases registered against Ramakrishna at different police stations across the state. The number of victims could increase and we are yet to ascertain the total amount of money involved,” said a senior police officia…

Women from Bengaluru, Chikmagaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad and Mysuru had contacted Ramakrishna over marriage proposals. According to the police, Ramakrishna used to place advertisements in newspapers seeking marriage proposals from widows and divorcees.

When the women got in touch, he would ask them to send their profiles and address proofs across through post, which the victims did unsuspectingly.

Ramakrishna would then use the address proof documents to obtain SIM cards to fake his identity. He would then scout and contact other widows and divorcees, learn their economic status and would cheat them as well. After some cheating cases were regi.

the police tracked the SIM cards and ended up at the homes of women who had contacted Ramakrishna. 

One of the women whom Ramakrishna had trapped in Koramangala, was lured with a government job offer. Ramakrishna told her that he was a senior official at the health department’s recruitment division. He could get jobs for many people with his influe…

The woman spread the news in her circles and Ramakrishna collected Rs 22 lakh from various job aspirants eventually. She herself gave Rs 3.9 lakh to Ramakrishna for the job, but all of them were cheated. After failing to get the job and the realisati…

That’s not all. Ramakrishna once posed himself as a widower and expressed interest in marrying a woman. As the duo met, Ramakrishna took her to a hotel, laced her juice with sedatives and sexually assaulted her, the police said.

Who is Ramakrishna? Ramakrishna is a resident of Doddamulagodu village in T Narasipura taluk, Mysuru district. After failing to pass the SSLC exam, he took up farming for a while. Later, Ramakrishna joined as a clerk at a college in Shivamogga.

In time, he migrated to Mysuru and lived with his wife and children. In Mysuru, he was involved in a cheating case after which he was jailed for a while. Upon release, Ramakrishna continued a wayward life, the police added. 

Nasheman News : The Thai police have arrested an Indian man and 27 Thai women in connection with a fake-marriage registration scam that enabled Indians to get residential visas in the country.

The Indian man, Wikrom Layerhi, was arrested on charge of being a broker to arrange for Thai women to register fake marriages with Indian nationals, the National daily cited Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakpal, Immigration Bureau Chief and Deputy Head of the Technology Crime Suppression Centre, as saying on Monday.

Surachate said that the arrested women were hired for 8,000 to 10,000 bahts each, adding that these women never stayed with the Indians with whom they had registered their marriages. 

One of the women was 70 years old and had a family, including children, Surachate said. 

Police officials said they checked more than 8,000 Indians living in Thailand and found that 127 of them unlawfully obtained residential visas, which have been revoked. 

Thirty-six of the 127 men had been deported, according to authorities.