Archives for 2022

Hyderabad: Eight students of a business school here were arrested in connection with an alleged incident of ragging, including a student being beaten up, which assumed a communal colour after a video of it had gone viral.

While five were arrested earlier, three were arrested and sent to jail on Monday, police said.
Efforts were on to nab two more accused students.

In the same case, nine members of the school’s administration have been booked for their alleged inaction in responding to the incident, police said.

The issue began when a woman student took exception to certain comments made by the victim student during a social media chat last month and informed some friends, they said.

Some of these friends allegedly went to the victim student’s room on November 1 and beat him up. He had complained to the institute management on the matter and later e-mailed to some government officials and others.

He had later complained to the police and a case under the ragging act and under relevant sections of law was registered.

Meanwhile, the issue got a communal colour when a purported video of the incident had gone viral in which some religious slogans were made.

Police, however, said the accused students belong to different religions and not just one.

Rooh Afza bottles on a cart in a local market of Delhi

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has permanently restrained retailers on e-commerce platform Amazon from selling sherbets made in Pakistan under the Rooh Afza’ brand owned by India’s Hamdard.

The court’s verdict came after the Hamdard National Foundation (India) approached it with a complaint that sherbets manufactured in Pakistan were being sold in India under identical name.

The high court decreed the suit in favour of Hamdard which had adopted the mark Rooh Afza’ in 1907. The company sells over Rs 200 crore worth of products under this brand name annually.

Justice Prathiba Singh also said in case any other listings infringing the plaintiff’s (Hamdard) ‘Rooh Afza’ mark are found, it shall be brought to the notice of Amazon India and the same shall be taken down in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules.

The high court’s order came while deciding the trademark infringement suit filed by Hamdard National Foundation (India) and Hamdard Dawakhana, which is also trading as Hamdard Laboratories India, against Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd and Golden Leaf.

The plaintiffs claimed a company named Golden Leaf was selling products under the Rooh Afza’ mark on Amazon India which were not sold by them.

They said the product, which infringed their trademark, was manufactured in Pakistan and it does not comply with the requirements of the Legal Metrology Act and the Food Safety and Standards Act which governs such products in India.

The plaintiffs also pointed out that three purchases were made by them from three sellers through the Amazon platform and on all occasions the product was claimed to be manufactured by Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) Pakistan.

Mumbai: A close friend of Maharashtra resident Shraddha Walkar, who was killed allegedly by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala in Delhi, has said there could be a “big conspiracy” behind her murder, while another friend claimed she had once called him saying Poonawala would kill her.

Poonawala (28) has been arrested by the Delhi Police for murdering Walkar in May this year, chopping the body into 35 pieces before dumping them at different places in the national capital over several days.

As per Manikpur police in Vasai town of Palghar district, Walkar, a graduate in mass media, worked at a call centre in Malad area of Mumbai and met Poonawala through the dating app Bumble in 2019.

A friend of Walkar, who had alerted her family members after being unable to contact her, claimed, “Once Walkar (when she was living in Vasai town near Mumbai) had messaged me and asked me to come and take her or else Aaftab would kill her.”

Some of the friends then reached out to Walkar and warned Poonawala, he said.

“We were then going to approach police against Aaftab but Shraddha stopped us,” he said.

The friend said he had a text message conversation on Walkar’s mobile phone in July. He started getting worrying about her in August after being unable to contact her.

Walkar was not replying to his messages and her number was coming switched-off, he said, adding that he had also enquired about her in their friend circle.

The friend also said when he did not get any update, he told his brother that it would be better to contact police.
Another close friend of Walkar said police should find out details about Poonawala, his background “as it (the murder) may be some big conspiracy”.

“She (Walkar) was wanted to become a journalist and after pursuing graduation in mass media, she was doing theatre too. She was very active and her personality had a spark,” he said.

The friend claimed they started noticing some changes in Walkar in 2018. It was not a good sign as she always seemed upset, he said.

“I think it was the time when Aaftab entered into her life,” he said.

The friend said they came to know in 2019 that Walkar was in a relationship with Poonawala and at that time they found him to be a “simple person”.

Walkar and Poonawala were in a live-in relationship and they later shifted to Delhi after a mutual understanding to work together, he said.

“We came to know sometime back that she was missing and now it has come to light that she was brutally murdered, and it may be some big conspiracy,” he said.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday heard a suo motu PIL on Morbi bridge tragedy and asked the state government as to how no expression of interest was tendered, and how the “largesse of the state” was given to an individual without floating a tender.

The collapse of the British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Gujarat’s Morbi district on October 30 claimed 135 lives including women and children Hearing the suo motu PIL, the high court wanted to know from the state government as to whether a 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and 2022 agreement with the Ajanta Manufacturing Private Ltd (Oreva Group) imposed any conditions regarding fitness certification and if so, who was the competent authority required to do so.

“This agreement is one-and-a-quarter page agreement, absolutely without any conditions. This agreement is by way of an understanding, largesse of the state for ten years, and no tenders floated, no expression of interest,” a division bench of Chief Jistice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri observed.

“After that term was over on June 15, 2017, what steps were taken by the state government or Morbi municipality to float a tender? How come no expression of interest was tendered, and how the largesse of the state was given to an individual without floating a tender…Why have you still not superseded the municipality?” the court asked.

The court observed that even after the term was over on June 15, 2017, Ajanta (Oreva Group) continued to maintain and manage the bridge even in the absence of any agreement.

It wanted to know from the state government whether any steps were taken by local authorities to float a tender for the operation and maintenance of the bridge after the 2008 MoU expired in 2017.

The HC said on November 7 that it had taken suo motu (on its own) cognisance of a news report on the bridge collapse tragedy and registered it as a PIL (Public Interest Litigation).

It had directed the registry to implead the Gujarat government, represented by its chief secretary, state home department, commissioner of municipalities, Morbi municipality, district collector and State Human Rights Commission.

On October 31, police arrested nine persons, including four from the Oreva group that was managing the Morbi suspension bridge, and filed a case against firms tasked with the maintenance and operation of the structure.

Parmesh S Jain

The North Division cyber crime police officials are on the lookout for a conman who not only cheated an elderly woman with 30,000 promising Mudra loan but also opened another bank account in her name to carry out fraudulent transactions .

Senior officer told reporters,The victim,Nagamma Devaraj,49,from Chikkabanawara,the police on Friday registered a case against the unknown person charging him under cheating,forgery and also under various sections of the IT Act.

Nagamma told the police that the accused posing as government official called her promising to get her loan under PM Jan dhan Yojana on August 14.

The accused obtained her details and also made her to transfer 30,000 online on the pretext of processing fee for the interest free Mudra loan.

After some time, the accused called her again to inform that her CIBIL rate is low and promised to get it right to make it eligible for loan applications.

Trusting him,Nagammma shared all her personal information including Aadhar and voters id using which the accused had opened a saving account at a nationalized bank and made fraudulent transactions worth several lakhs.

The fraud came to light recently when the bank officials alerted Nagamma about the fraudulent transactions which she was not even aware .

The accused had mentioned his address while opening the bank account so that he could get the welcome kit and debit card delivered to his address .

The police suspect that the accused part of the online fraud network and diverted the cheated amount to this account,which was in the name of Nagamma.

The police are now trying to track down the accused through the residential address but the accused is on the run.

The police have also wrote to the department of Telecommunication official concerned to block the SIM card to prevent the accused from cheating others.

It may be recalled that the city police in November 4,wrote to all the cyber crime officials to utilize the newly launched service to block the SIM cards using by cyber crooks.

However the police feels that this will have minimal effect on the cyber frauds as they are faster than the police and adopt advance methods to cheat.

The SIM cards used by the accused are also availed through fraudulent means,a police officer,said adding that the accused would take another SIM as soon as the existing one is blocked.