India has urged the world organisation to overcome “narrow geopolitical interests” and adopt the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) that it has proposed.

Terrorism is an “alarming concern that impacts us all and requires effective international collaboration”” to develop international law to combat it, Indian MP P.D. Rai told the General Assembly Committee dealing with legal matters on Monday.

“However, law-making on this issue continues to falter in view of narrow geopolitical interests,” he said.

“Ironically, often states hide behind legal concepts, designed for different contexts, to stop progress on this vital issue, including here at the UN in the context of a draft CCIT,” Rai, who belongs to the Sikkim Democratic Front and is the only MP from his state in Parliament, said.

General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa also made a forceful plea before the Committee to finalise the CCIT.

India proposed the CCIT in 1966 but negotiations on it have so far been unsuccessful because countries have not been able to agree on the definition of terrorism and terrorists, which would be essential for framing the law.

Some nations have claimed that certain categories of terrorists were “freedom fighters” and some terrorist organisations are “liberation movements” and, therefore, they should not be covered by international anti-terrorism law.

Espinosa told the Committee: “I would reiterate the need to implement measures to eliminate international terrorism, and to advance the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

“As it is, the nature of terrorism has shifted. The world is seeing smaller, more frequent, more dispersed, less dramatic but equally as profound attacks. I, therefore, echo previous calls in this Chamber and stress the importance of finalising the draft CCIT.”

Rai also called for reform of the Security Council so that the global governance structures reflect contemporary realities.

“The current UN structures were designed for a bygone era by a mere handful of nation states. For retaining legitimacy and effectiveness, fundamental reform of these structures, especially the Security Council, is needed.”

Rai is among a group of MPs who are members of the Indian delegation to the General Assembly session.

IANS

Vinta Nanda, a veteran writer-producer of the avant-garde 1990s’ show “Tara” fame, has accused actor Alok Nath — known for his “sanskaari” on-screen image — of sexually violating her almost two decades ago. The Cine & TV Artists Association (CINTAA) has decided to send him a show-cause notice.

“I have waited for this moment to come for 19 years,” Nanda wrote in a long, heart-wrenching Facebook post, referring to the “predator in question” as “the actor par excellence who is known as the most ‘sanskaari’ (cultured) person in the film and television industry”.

Her suggestive remarks like “sanskaari” and that the person concerned was the “lead actor” and a “television star of that decade” were good enough to make out that Nanda was indeed pointing the finger at Alok.

Later, confirming the same to IANS via SMS, Nanda said: “It is Alok Nath. I thought saying ‘sanskaari’ would do the needful.”

CINTAA General Secretary Sushant Singh has said a show-cause notice will be sent to Alok. He urged Nanda to file a complaint against “this vile creature”, and added: “We extend you full support”.

Alok is known for his roles as a stereotypical Indian father, personifying religious traditions and moral values in films and TV shows.

It is the escalating voices against sexual harassment across the world as part of the #MeToo wave that gave Nanda the courage to pen down the experiences which had left her “shattered”.

“He was an alcoholic, shameless and obnoxious but he was also the television star of that decade, so not only was he forgiven for all his bad behaviour, many of the guys would also egg him on to be his worst,” Nanda wrote, adding that he even harassed the show’s lead actress who was not interested in him.

Sharing the “worst” that happened, Nanda recounted the incidents that followed after she left a party at Alok’s house at 2 a.m. She says her drinks were mixed.

“I started to walk home on the empty streets… Midway I was accosted by this man who was driving his own car and he asked me to sit in it and said he would drop me home. I trusted him and sat in his car.

“I have faint memory after that. I can remember more liquor being poured into my mouth and I remember being violated endlessly. When I woke up the next afternoon, I was in pain. I hadn’t just been raped, I was taken to my own house and had been brutalised.

“I couldn’t get up for my bed. I told some of my friends but everybody advised me to forget about it and move on.”

Later, she got a job to write and direct a series for Plus Channel, and again her paths crossed with Alok.

“The man found his way through the casting route and became one of the lead actors on the show. He created an environment in which I was made to feel threatened, so I asked the producers to release me from directing the series because I didn’t want to be around where he was.

“I continued to write the show.”

The “most difficult part” and the “main reason” why Nanda took so long to come out with the truth was because while she was working on this new series, she says, “he asked me to come to his house again and I went to allow him to violate me”.

“I needed the job and didn’t want to leave it as I needed the money. It was after this that I quit.”

Nanda has urged people “who have suffered at the hands of predators, to come out and say it aloud”.

“Don’t hold yourselves back. This is a moment for change, so your silence will only hold barriers to its evolution. Speak out. Shout out from the top of the roof.”

IANS

A 39-year-old woman was arrested yesterday for allegedly killing her 75-year-old blind aunt in their flat in Thane’s Khopat area, the police said.

According to police, the accused Sapna Kulkarni allegedly attacked Shobha Kulkarni in a fit of rage on Saturday when the latter didn’t respond to her demand to make breakfast.

Police said Shobha was stabbed at least 15 times.

A case of murder has been registered.

Further investigation is underway in the case.

PTI

Gangsters kill B’luru man asking for directions, mistaking him for a rival
Chetan’s half-burnt body was found on September 15 in a vacant plot. The police have now made six arrests in the case, and are on the lookout for eight more.

On September 14, Chetan – an accountant with a BPO in Bengaluru – went to drop his friend Vinay in KR Puram after a get together. While returning, he lost his way, and decided to ask a man for directions, near Devasandra. The man’s friends were sitting in front of his house, drinking. One of the friends was a gangster. In a shocking turn of events, the gangster and his associates murdered Chetan, and set his body ablaze at a vacant plot later that night.

The Bengaluru police have now arrested three men in connection with the case, after three others surrendered last week. And the Hoskote police say that Manja and his associates believed Chetan to be part of a rival gang, and stabbed him multiple times and murdered him.

“The gang took Chetan’s body to Yelachamanahalli and set it it ablaze before fleeing the spot. A villager found the half-burned body the next morning and informed police,” a police officer told The Times of India.

“That night, there was a Ganesha procession in JC Layout. Two groups, one led by Appu and another by Harish alias Pakka, clashed over a trivial issue of changing a song. Harish and his gang left the spot, but Appu and his friends lingered till late night. Meanwhile, Chethan came and asked for directions towards his home in Hebbal. One of the gangsters noticed Chetan was carrying a smartphone and asked him why he was asking for route instead of using the navigator on his phone. The gangsters suspected Harish could have sent him to harm them and murdered him,” the police added. After investigations, police concluded that 14 people were involved in the crime.

Deccan Chronicle reported the police arrested Sai Vardhan, Sunil Kumar, and Kiran; Vishal, Vishwas and Arbaz had surrendered in court last week. Eight others are still absconding.

PTI

Bangalore : According to the police, the accused would sell the vehicles to customers across several locations for prices as low as Rs. 30,000.
Varthur police on Sunday arrested a gang of three bike thieves accused of stealing expensive, high-end bikes. The police have recovered 16 bikes worth Rs 30 lakh from the gang.

The police arrested Azmath Khan alias Bullet Khan (24), Santosh Reddy (23) and Manjunath (25). All three are residents of Attibele in Bengaluru Rural and are college dropouts. They learnt to pick the locks of bikes from a mechanic. Expensive bikes like Royal Enfield and Duke are among the bikes they reportedly stole.

According to the police, the accused persons surveyed an area after identifying high-end bikes. They would break open its handle lock and push it for a distance before hotwiring it and speeding away from the area, as per Bangalore Mirror.

After stealing the bikes, the accused persons would sell the vehicles to customers across several locations, including Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, for prices as low as Rs. 30,000. The police believe that they had associates in Tamil Nadu who helped them in their operation and the trio built a steady line of customers through this business, as they were selling well-maintained bikes for low prices.

But the gang’s streak of luck ran out when a case emerged in Varthur Police station limits of a stolen Royal Enfield bike. Noticing a pattern in the cases, the police officials formed a special team to nab the gang of bike thieves.

The police first managed to apprehend Manjunath and following an interrogation, the police caught Azmath and Santosh, reported Deccan Herald.

The arrest also comes at a time police in KR Puram Police station urged owners of high-end bikes to install anti-theft devices and GPS trackers on their vehicles. The police are also tracking an inter-state gang which is stealing high-end bikes and have urged owners of bikes to comply with their requests.

PTI

The Delhi High Court on Friday acquitted former TV serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court for murdering his wife in 2000.

The High Court set aside the trial court order of December 20, 2017, which sentenced Ilyasi to life term for stabbing his wife, Anju, to death.

Ilyasi, also the editor-in-chief of Bureaucracy Today magazine, had been tried for the last 18 years in the dowry death of his wife Anju Ilyasi.

Anju died on January 11, 2000 at her Mayur Vihar house. Charges were framed against Illyasi in the case after his sisters-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife.

Ilyasi had shot into the limelight after hosting the reality TV show “India’s Most Wanted”.

(IANS)

By : PRAMESH S JAIN

The Central Crime Branch Police opened fire to subdue the notorious dreaded rowdy sheeter George.

This is the first shootout by CCB Police, after Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar and DCP Crime-1,Girish S took charge in Bengaluru.

A team of central crime branch (CCB) sleuths opened fire to subdue and secure a notorious rowdy, who allegedly attacked them with a Machete near Jinkey park on Wednesday night. A policemen, identified as Umesh was injured in the attack launched by the George.

The injured policemen and George, who sustained bullet injuries on his legs, were admitted to the Victoria Hospital. Police said George has been facing more than 11 cases, including murder, kidnap and other cases registered in various police stations in the city.

In 2014, he was arrested in connection with a kidnapping case.He was released on bail.The accused is a Rowdy sheeter of Chamarajpet.

The CCB police were searching for George in connection with murder cases, and kidnap.Police said he was a suspect for threatening his witnesses.

DCP Crime-1,Girish S,who visited the spot and after inspecting the spot and collecting information from the cops.

He told media persons that CCB team comprising assistant commissioner of police Mariyappa, inspector,Prakash.K,and constable Umesh got a credible information that the notorious rowdy sheeter of Chamarajpet who was wanted in murder and kidnapping case court trials is moving near Chamarajpet towards Jinkey park as even he dint turned up for rowdy parade recently we launched our toll-free number 9480801555 to share information about rowdies who are harrasing people similarly we received a complaint against this rowdy sheeter

It is alleged that rowdy sheeter George threatened to kill a witness, if he deposed against him in court.Based on a complaint, the CCB had taken up a case and were on the lookout for George the team got reliable inputs and they immediately rushed to spot and found George riding a scooter near jinkey park around 10 pm on Wednesday night.The police team was tailing him from Chamarajpet.The sleuths intercepted George scooter in front of jinkey park the Inspector and constable went to the accused scooter and asked him to surrender but he,George did not stop the vehicle and tried to escape and our team gave a dramatic chase to the rowdy and tried to nab him a constable Umesh who went to arrest him,the rowdy then attacked our constable Umesh with machete,discarding Inspector Prakash order to surrender,

The accused again tried to attack our constable then our Inspector Prakash opened fired at his leg with his service revolver in self defence and subdue the accused and was arrested and he is undergoing treatment at Victoria hospital and finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,T.Suneel Kumar has appreciated,Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar,DCP Crime-1,Girish S,CCB OCW,Rowdy squad ACP,Mariyappa,PI,Prakash.K,and Cosntable Umesh who has nabbed a notorious rowdy sheeter by playing on their life and he was wanted in more than 11 cases the exemplary and commendable job done by the team is highly appreciated he added.

A 35-year-old Indian national faces a jail term of 2-5 years and caning over his bid to extort half a million dollars from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, the media reported on Wednesday.

According to court papers, Nagarajan Balajee had allegedly threatened to publish a libel concerning Aalishaan Zaidi, 47, the global head of digital banking at Standard Chartered Bank, unless he paid 500,000 Singapore dollars, the Straits Times reported.

Zaidi was one of a few bank employees who received the threatening e-mails sent anonymously. He earlier made a police report on the bank’s behalf.

The Indian man was arrested on Sunday and several laptops as well as mobile phones were seized from him in connection with the case, the report said.

According to the daily, the bank had made a police report last Thursday about how it had been threatened with a leakage of confidential information. Balajee was believed to have used multiple fictitious e-mail accounts to deliver the threats anonymously.

Preliminary investigations by the police also found that the suspect might have used overseas-registered mobile lines and virtual private network services to mask his identity to evade detection. A VPN allows unauthorised content from overseas to be accessed by users.

Balajee is out on bail and due to appear in court on October 30.

IANS

Two persons were shot dead and a Dalit woman was injured on Thursday during a caste-clash over water sharing for irrigation in Bihar’s Nawada district, police said.

The incident in Khaira village, about 150 km from here, has caused tension in the area. Security forces have been deployed.

The area is facing an acute shortage of rainfall. Farmers are restless for their kharif crop mainly paddy.

Following a heated exchange between two groups earlier in the day, a powerful backward caste group opened fire and killed two persons on the spot while seriously injuring a Dalit woman, Akbarpur police Station Officer in-charge Sanjeev Mauaar said.

She was admitted to a hospital in Nawada, he said.

Bihar has recorded 22 per cent rainfall deficit during the 2018 monsoon.

IANS

“They attacked me when I was inside my car. Those men broke the window and the glass shards fell on my face. I was bleeding,” recounts 36-year-old Chetana*, a resident of Bengaluru, who was allegedly attacked by her former boyfriend’s henchmen a few days ago.

On September 22, Chetana and her friend went for dinner to a restaurant in Indiranagar. On their way back, Chetana, who was driving the car on Indiranagar 13th Main Road, was waylaid by three men, who allegedly bumped into her car, ensuring that she stopped.

Suddenly, one of the men, she says, broke open her window and the glass shards hit her face, causing minor injuries. Chetana immediately sped away.

“I knew then that all the threats my former boyfriend had issued in the past were not empty ones and I was really scared. So I went with my father to Indiranagar Police Station and filed a complaint. When they asked me whether I suspected someone, I told them about Bharat Raj, my former boyfriend and how he had been harassing me ever since we broke up,” Chetana says.

In 2014, Chetana met Bharat Raj, a 43-year-old owner of women’s hostels in Chamarajpet and Banashankari through mutual friends. Bharat and Chetana were in a relationship for a few years and in May this year, Chetana broke off the relationship due to personal differences.

“He made me trust him and he ensured that I had no one left but him. He isolated me from everyone. He wanted me to come running to him if I needed something. I knew he was leading me on and I found out that he had been seeing other women while we were together, so I broke it off. Ever since, he has been sending me vulgar messages and talking to my friends about me. He was assassinating my character and I lost a lot of friends because of it. He called me a prostitute and many other names. He told me that my family and I would find out what will happen four or five months later. I only perceived those as empty threats until that day I was attacked,” Chetana alleges.

The sexual harassment got even worse when Bharat allegedly told Chetana that he would make public several intimate photos she had shared with him when the were in a relationship. Chetana alleges that she stopped responding to his messages then.

“I knew he was stalking me because he would send me random messages and he would know who I was with at that given point of time. When this incident happened, the police did not mention his name in the FIR. They told me to go and file a sexual harassment complaint in the Jeevan Bhima Nagar Police. Four days after the incident happened, there was another attack,” Chetana says.

At around 11.30 pm on September 26, Chetana says she woke up when she heard a dog barking. She then heard sounds of glass being broken. “I was too scared to step outside the house. A few minutes after everything was quiet, I went outside to find that all the windows of my car were smashed and my car was damaged completely. I immediately called the JB Nagar police and they came to my house to inspect the scene. They then registered an FIR against him for stalking, criminal intimidation and sexual harassment,” Chetana says.

According to the Jeevan Bhima Nagar Police, Bharat Raj is currently absconding and his last-known location was in Gujarat’s Surat.

“His father told us that he had harassed both his former wives and would mentally torture them. We are trying to track him down. Since the victim did not see her attackers’ faces, it is a little difficult to track them down as there are no CCTV cameras in her house or in the road where she lives,” the police added.

Chetana and her septuagenarian parents are planning to move to another house within a gated community. “I am too scared to step outside the house. Earlier, when the harassing messages had got to me, I had decided to move away from Bengaluru. But now that this has happened, I can’t leave until he is in jail. But we are planning to move to a gated community so that my parents and I feel safe,” Chetana says.

IANS