An attempt to derail a loaded goods train was made in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan by putting two cement blocks on tracks of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, railway officials said on Tuesday.

They said a goods train did hit the blocks, weighing around 70 kg each, but nothing untoward occurred.

“Some miscreants put two cement blocks on tracks on the dedicated freight corridor on Sunday. A goods train hit them,” a North Western Railway official said.

The incident occurred between Saradhna and Bangad stations of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor on the Phulera-Ahmedabad stretch.

A freight corridor official said a case has been registered and the matter is under investigation.

The report comes a day after an attempt to derail the Bhiwani-Prayagraj Kalindi Express

was made in Kanpur by placing an LPG cylinder on tracks, along with a bottle of petrol and matchboxes.

Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi alias Rajkumar Panchal

Faridabad: Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi alias Rajkumar Panchal, an accused in the Nuh violence case, filed his nomination as an independent candidate from NIT assembly segment in Faridabad on Monday.

The assembly elections will be held in Haryana on October 5.

In an official statement, District Election Officer Vikram Singh confirmed that Bajrangi has filed his nomination as an independent from NIT Faridabad seat.

Bajrangi, who formed Gau Raksha Bajrang Force, has a long association with controversies.

Bajrangi has been an accused in the case of Nuh violence that had started in July last year after a procession organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was attacked by a mob.

Five people, including two home guards, were killed and many injured in the violence that erupted on July 31 last year in Nuh and spread to other areas of the state. In Gurugram, a naib imam was killed at a mosque amid a series of incidents of arson.

In July this year, three cases were registered against Bajrangi in Faridabad.

Lucknow: In a shocking incident, an enquiry by UP irrigation department about a 6-year experienced senior assistant missing work led to the discovery of his murder conviction 11 years ago, Times of India reported on September 9.

The convict Anoop Dubey, who is in his mid-30s now, had been arrested for the murder of a youth named Devendra Singh Tomar of Nainagarh in 2013, along with Gaurav Jha, Kapil Sharma and Akash. The gang, who wanted to kill Devendra for ‘arrogant behavior’, had taken the victim to a secluded spot in Babina near Jhansi in the pretext of a picnic. They had shot him dead and burnt his body.

When Lakhan Singh Tomar, the victim’s father, had confronted them about his missing son, they had told him about the murder and had proceeded to issue death threats, if he told anyone. Despite the threats, Tomar had filed a murder case against all four on May 17, 2013 which had let to their arrest. However, chief engineer Mithlesh Dubey, the accused’s father, had succeeded in securing his bail six months later.

When his father died in 2018, Dubey had secured a job in the UP irrigations department on compassionate grounds. Despite stringent background checks, including mandatory police verification and character certificate of any candidate applying for a government post, no criminal history of Dubey had allegedly come out inspite of there being an active murder trial against him.

Dubey went on to work till August 13, this year, completing 6 years of service. On August 14, the day of verdict in his case, he was on leave to his duty at the irrigation department. Jhansi court convicted him and other three accused in Tomar murder case and sentenced them to life, on that day.

When he didn’t return to work, the blissfully ignorant department had initiated an enquiry to trace him which had revealed his court conviction. The case has led many to question the credibility and efficiency of the recruitment process in the government agencies which couldn’t prevent an accused murderer from securing a job and settling comfortably for over six years in public service.

The case draws parallel with that of Bitty Mohanty who was jailed for seven years in 2006 for raping a German national. Eight months later, while on a 15-days parole to visit his sick mother in Cuttack, Odisha, he escaped the clutches of law and went missing. His father B B Mohanty, an IPS officer, had been charged with helping his son abscond, an accusation which the former persistently refused. He was reinstated to service in 2009 and continued to serve in the force till his retirement in 2012.

Years of police work to locate Bitty Mohanty failed until 2013 when he was arrested from a bank in Kannur, Kerala, where he was working under a false name of ‘Raghav Rajan’, a resident of Andhra Pradesh. An anonymous letter sent to the bank revealing the true identity of one of its employees had led to the police tip-off.

Patna: Bike-borne assailants gunned down a BJP member outside a restaurant in the Bihar capital Patna in the early hours of Monday, police said.

The deceased was identified as Munna Sharma who was associated with the BJP for years.

“Munna Sharma was shot at by three unidentified bike-borne armed assailants outside a restaurant when he was waiting for an autorickshaw. The armed men fled the spot after the shooting,” Patna Rural Superintendent of Police Raushan Kumar told reporters.

He succumbed to his injuries in a government hospital.

“Police registered a case and launched a manhunt to nab the gunmen. Forensic experts collected evidence from the spot. Officials are analysing CCTV footage of the area to identify the accused,” he said.

Leader of the opposition in the assembly Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD claimed that the incident showed crime was flourishing under the NDA government in the state.

“The state government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has miserably failed to check the deteriorating law and order situation in the state,” the RJD leader posted on X.

Union minister Chirag Paswan said it is a matter of serious concern.

New Delhi: In the wake of objectionable signboards appearing at the entrances of villages in several areas of Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag, a civil society group comprising several retired civil servants and academics on Monday wrote to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami against alleged discrimination targeting Muslims.

Villagers in several areas of Rudraprayag district have put up signboards at the entrances of their villages, prohibiting the entry of outsiders.

Signboards had been put up in villages such as Sirsi, Rampur-Nyalsu, and others. Initially, the boards stated a ban on “non-Hindus”, but the phrasing was later changed to “ban on outsiders” following police intervention, according to villagers.

The police, however, later said objectionable signboards have been removed.

“The signboards put up at six places in Guptkashi police station area were objectionable and have been withdrawn,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Prabodh Kumar Ghildiyal said. People have been asked to maintain social harmony, he said.

In a letter to Dhami, Citizens for Fraternity said that as concerned citizens of the country they have watched with dismay, news coming out of various places in Uttarakhand of “discrimination against Muslims, many of whom have been residents for decades and owning businesses there”.

The letter is signed by the likes of former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former AMU vice chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui and former IRS Syed Mahmood Akhter, among others.

The Constitution does not discriminate on religion, caste or region, the letter said.

It encourages Indians and does not debar them to travel to other states and set up businesses, which provides employment opportunities to local people and contribute towards the economy, the letter to Dhami said.

“It (putting up of signboards) depicts our country in poor light and offers an opportunity to those not amicable to us to criticise us. How can we aspire to be world leaders if such incidents continue and are not nipped in the bud. The perpetrators of hate, irrespective of religion, must to be booked and stringent action taken against them,” the letter said.

“We believe that DMs and SPs in each district should be held accountable if no action is taken, the civil society group said.

Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia

New Delhi: The Railways on Monday accepted the resignations of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, officials said.

In separate notices issued on Monday, the Northern Railway said their resignations tendered on September 6 were “accepted by the competent authority with immediate effect.”

Both Punia and Phogat joined the Congress recently. Phogat has been given a party ticket to contest the Haryana assembly polls from the Julana constituency.

The Northern Railway relaxed the provision of three-month notice period in their cases. Speculations were rife that Phogat might not be able to contest the elections in view of the notice period norm.

According to election rules, she needed to get officially relieved from the Railways to be eligible to contest the October 5 polls.

Now, since the Railways has relieved the two Olympians from their service, Phogat can contest the elections.

The NR had earlier issued show cause notices to them after they met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi before joining his party.

It had said the show cause notice was part of the service norm as they were government employees. Following the notices, both resigned from the Railways.