A court here on Tuesday convicted two alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives in the 2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts which had claimed 42 lives. Two other accused were acquitted while the fate of a fifth accused will be decided next week.

The Second Metropolitan Sessions Court held Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary guilty. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 10.

Anique allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park which claimed 10 lives while Akbar kept the bomb at Diluskhnagar but it failed to explode.

Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Public Prosecutor Seshu Reddy told reporters that the verdict in the case relating to the fifth accused Tariq Anjum will be pronounced on Monday. Anjum is accused of giving shelter to the other accused after the blasts.

Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T. Srinivas Rao delivered the judgement at the high security Cherlapally Central Prison on the city’s outskirts. All the accused barring Anjum were produced before the judge.

While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, a popular eatery, 10 others lost their lives at Lumbini Park, near State Secretariat, in near simultaneous blasts around 7.45 p.m. on August 25, 2007.

More than 50 were injured in the blasts. An unexploded bomb was also recovered under a foot-over-bridge at Dilsukhnagar that night.

The accused were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in October 2008. Three other accused including IM chief Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal still remain at large.

The case was initially investigated by the Andhra Pradesh Police and following bifurcation of the state it was handed over to the Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of Telangana Police.

Three chargesheets were filed against the accused. In 2014, the court framed charges against them. They were charged with murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Explosive Substances Act.

The trial against them was shifted to a court hall located in the premises of the prison in June this year on security grounds.

(IANS)

BJP MLA Uma Devi Khatik’s son Princedeep Lalchand Khatik, in a social media post on Monday, threatened to shoot Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Lalchand Khatik wrote in a Facebook post: “Jyotiraditya Scindia, you have Jiwajirao’s blood running in your veins, who killed Jhansi ki Rani. If you step in Hatta then I will shoot you. Either you will die or I will.”

His statement comes ahead of Scindia’s scheduled visit to Hatta district to hold a rally on September 5.

Uma Devi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Madhya Pradesh’s Hatta Vidhan Sabha constituency told IANS: “This post is unfortunate. Scindia is a respectable MP. I will ask my son to remove the post.”

Former Congress Minister Raja Pateriya called Scindia the most liked person in India. Scared of his immense popularity, the BJP is making baseless accusations against him.

He said that the police should conduct an immediate inquiry into the matter and step up security to Scindia.

(IANS)

Bengaluru City Police isn’t a stranger to crank calls. After the recent bomb scare at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), which resulted in a two-hour flight delay of flights, City Express decided to look into the number of the crank and hoax calls received by the Police Control Room (PCR) daily.

According to data received by the City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB) and the PCR, per day, out of 1,663 total calls received on average under the crank call category, at least 30-40 calls are crank calls, while the rest are accidental, blank calls from residents. In addition, these kinds of calls come in from around 9pm to 1am every day. The number of calls doubles during the weekends, according to ACP of Police Control Room, K Ajay Kumar.

Within four bomb hoax calls are received in a year. “In most cases, the person is either mentally unstable or is on drugs or alcohol. They are either sent to rehabilitation centres or given a stern warning,” says Kumar. Multiple crank calls from the same person results in the blocking of the number, and the caller will have to visit the station, explain his action and provide an apology letter, after which his number may be unblocked.

On Tuesday, KIA had received another bomb scare from a 34-year-old MBA graduate from Udupi. The man arrested will have to apply for bail, but if rejected, he may face up to three years imprisonment. Kumar stated that they had received similar calls from him three times in July as well.

Bomb squad, police, fire dept alerted

Once control room operators receive a call, the information is directed to the Bomb Squad. The area’s police station is also alerted. Simultaneously, the caller’s details are forwarded to the technical team to ensure the genuineness of the information provided. The area’s local ambulance and fire department are also given a heads up. “We cannot take any chances with these cases, so every time we get such calls, we follow the usual procedure to ensure the safety of people,” says Kumar.

World Hospital, Dr Naveen Jayaram, says that the reason behind such calls could be high novelty seeking and externalising traits or thrill-seeking, which causes an increase in dopamine levels in the brain. Other reasons could be the person facing extreme trouble with authorities and is unable to handle the stress, hence anger turns inward. In these cases, the patient is usually treated for 10-20 days, depending
on his response.

(TNIE)

In a shocking incident, at least 14 dead bodies of newborn babies, wrapped in plastic bags, were recovered from a deserted ground in south Kolkata’s Haridebpur on Sunday, police said.

Covered with shrubs and twigs, the bodies were found on Sunday afternoon while the sprawling ground was being cleaned up.

The ground has been sealed by the officials of Kolkata Police following the recovery.

City Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar rushed to the spot.

“I was informed by the local councillor that the ground was filled with litters for many months and needed to be cleaned. While the cleaning work was on, 14 dead bodies of new born babies could be recovered from one side of the ground. The bodies were wrapped in plastic and chemical was applied to stop them from rotting,” Chatterjee said.

“The police are keeping a strict vigil on the spot. The entire ground needs to be cleaned to ascertain the exact number of bodies that have been dumped here.”

The police are still figuring out how the bodies were dumped on the empty ground.

(IANS)

In an investigation that has major repercussions on aviation safety, the Enforcement Directorate is probing whether chartered planes were used to ferry truckloads of cash in and outside the country.
The probe, which involves multiple agencies, is at a formative stage, but has found at least a few instances whereby chartered planes used by VIPs were modified with cubbyholes where cash could be stashed and carried undetected.

Investigators have, however, told reporter there is no evidence yet of the owners of such chartered planes or their VIP clients being involved.

The issue came to light in May when the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI arrested a former journalist and businessman, Upendra Rai, for obtaining an aerodrome entry pass from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security by giving fake credentials.

The pass gave him access to all airports across the country. Though the CBI arrested the businessman, executives of private plane operator Air One and some airport officials, the investigators did not reveal Mr Rai’s motives for getting such an all-access pass.

The modus operandi was the criminals chose chartered planes being used by VIPs which would have minimum amount of security checks

This week, the Enforcement Directorate or ED revealed that they have seized all his assets worth more than Rs. 26 crore, including flats in south Delhi’s posh Greater Kailash and Connaught Place.

The ED also revealed that he would extort companies and channel funds through shell companies.

however, learnt that investigators suspect he was working with an aviation engineer to create invisible pockets in planes. These then would be stashed with illicit cash without the knowledge of the owners or the client who was flying the plane.

The modus operandi, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, was that they were targeting chartered planes being used by VIPs which would have minimum amount of security checks.

(NDTV)

A court here on Friday issued a production warrant against former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and granted bail to his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and some others in connection with a 2006 IRCTC hotels maintenance contract case.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri to a private firm involving a bribe in the form of a three-acre commercial plot at a prime location in Patna district.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar asked jail authority of Ranchi to present Lalu Prasad before his court on October 8.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief is lodged in a Ranchi Jail in connection with a fodder scam.

The court asked former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav to each furnish personal bonds of Rs one lakh and a surety of same amount.

They appeared in pursuance of summon issued against them.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April filed the charge sheet in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels maintenance contract case against 12 people and two companies.

Among those named in the charge sheet were Bihar former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, his wife and son, former Managing Director of IRCTC P.K. Goel, Sujata Hotels directors Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, Sarala Gupta — wife of Prem Chand Gupta, RJD MP.

The CBI charge-sheet also named Additional Member of the Railway Board B.K. Agarwal, who was then Group General Manager (GGM) of the IRCTC.

The central probe agency also named former GGM of IRCTC V.K. Asthana, R.K. Gogia — then GGM (company secretary) of IRCTC, Ramesh Saxena — then IRCTC Director, and Sujata Hotels Pvt Ltd.

A Buddhist monk of Bodh Gaya’s Prajna Jyoti Buddhist School and Meditation Centre was on Wednesday taken into custody for alleged sexual abuse of 15 children from Assam, who were studying at the institution.

“The children had complained about the monk to their respective guardians. Also, they informed us that they were thrashed, mistreated and sexually abused while staying in the school. We are investigating the matter now and will take relevant action,” DSP Rajkumar Shah said.

This comes at a time when the Bihar government is being strongly criticised by the Opposition parties over the growing number of cases of sexual harassment in the state.

Earlier this year, Mumbai’s leading research institute -Tata Institute of Social Sciences – stated in a report that the girls are falling prey to sexual abuse at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

The police had rescued 44 girls living in the vicinity and had arrested 11 employees working at the shelter home on July 24. The medical reports of twenty-nine girls indicated that sexual contact was established with them.

Cybercriminals are moving away from attention-grabbing ransomware attacks to more covert methods intended to steal money and valuable computing resources globally including in India, cyber security leader Trend Micro said on Thursday.

Crypto-jacking — where a hacker steals cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin from digital wallets — attempts are making the biggest impact so far this year, said the report titled “Midyear Security Roundup 2018.”

Trend Micro recorded a 96 per cent increase in cryptocurrency mining detections in the first half of 2018 compared to all of 2017, and a massive 956 per cent increase in detections versus the first half of 2017.

This indicates that cybercriminals are shifting away from the quick payout of ransomware in favour of the slower, behind-the-scenes approach of stealing computing power to mine digital currency.

“In the wake of several breaches over the last few years, the country is reeling under the spate of attacks that have compromised databases belonging to banking institutions, government email servers, and Indian enterprises at large,” said Nilesh Jain, Vice President-South East Asia and India, Trend Micro.

“We have also seen few Public Cloud providers getting compromised this year. Next year, the customers who don’t take adequate measures to their applications or data which are hosted in Public Cloud, might even get compromised,” he added.

Another shift in the first half of the year is toward unusual malware types, such as fileless, macro and small file malware.

Trend Micro recorded a 250 per cent increase in detections of one particular small file malware “TinyPOS” compared to the second half of 2017.

“The recent change in the threat landscape mirrors what we’ve seen for years that cybercriminals will constantly shift their tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) to improve their infection rates,” said Jon Clay, Director of Global Threat Communications for Trend Micro.

(IANS)

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today arrested Syed Shakeel Yousuf, son of globally wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin, in connection with a 2011 terror funding case for allegedly receiving money from his father.

An NIA spokesman said in Delhi that Shakeel, at present working as a laboratory assistant at a prestigious government hospital, was picked up from Rambagh locality of Srinagar and placed under arrest.

The spokesman said, “In an operation today morning, NIA team along with the police and CRPF arrested Shakeel in a terror funding case”.

He is the second son of Salahuddin who has been arrested by the NIA in connection with the case. Earlier in June this year, his another son, Shahid, who was working in the agricultural department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, was arrested in the same case.

The NIA alleged Shakeel used to receive funds through a US-based international wire transfer company from Aijaz Ahmed Bhat, another accused in the case who is absconding and based in Saudi Arabia

The agency alleged Shakeel was “one of several Indian contacts of Bhat” who had been in telephonic contact with him for receiving money transfer codes

The case, registered by the NIA in April 2011, relates to transfer of money from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala channels via Delhi, which the agency believed was used in funding terrorism and secessionist activities

The NIA has so far filed two charge sheets against six people including G M Bhat, a close aide of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga. All four are in judicial custody

Two others — Mohammed Maqbool Pandit and Bhat — were also charge sheeted by the NIA but are absconding. An Interpol Red Corner notice has been issued against them Shakeel’s father Mohammed Yusuf Shah — better known as Syed Salahuddin — was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State.

Besides heading terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, he is the chairman of the United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of terrorist outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley. The NIA had also registered two others cases related to terror funding — one in November 2011 and the other in May this year.

The agency had filed a charge sheet against 10 people including Syed Salahuddin in the April 2011 case. In the recent case, the NIA arrested 10 people including some close relatives and aides of Geelani.

(PTI)

The detection of counterfeit notes in the Rs 50 and Rs 100 denomination witnessed a record high in 2017-18 compared with two preceding fiscals, the RBI announced on Wednesday.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report for 2017-18, the number of fake Rs 50 notes detected shot up 154.3 per cent to 23,447 pieces, as against 9,222 notes detected in 2016-17 and 6,453 in 2015-16.

The RBI said that the detection of counterfeit Rs 100 notes increased 35 per cent to 239,182 pieces during the said period, compared with 177,195 notes in 2016-17 and 221,447 in 2015-16.

However, the detection of counterfeit notes was 31.4 per cent lower in 2017-18 compared with the previous year.

“Counterfeit notes in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 detected in SBNs (specified banknotes) decreased by 59.7 and 59.6 per cent respectively, as the same comprised only the residual part of SBN deposits processed during 2017-18,” the report said.

This “residual” currency refers to the high-value notes scrapped by demonetisation in November 2016.

“During 2017-18, as many as 522,783 pieces of counterfeit notes were detected in the banking system, of which 63.9 per cent were detected by banks other than the Reserve Bank,” the RBI said.

Moreover, out of the total fake notes detected at the RBI, their share during 2017-18 was higher at 36.1 per cent, compared with 4.3 per cent during the previous year.

This was because of processing of a large volume of SBNs withdrawn from circulation by demonetisation, the report said.

Speaking of the Indian economy, the annual report said that there are upside risks to inflation which requires vigilance.

Pointing out that while headline inflation is likely to face upside risks over the remaining period of the current fiscal, the RBI projected the country’s real Gross Domestic Product for the same period to grow to 7.4 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the previous year.

India’s central bank also said that credit growth is likely to be supported by the progress in resolving the most pressing problem of non-performing assets, or bad loans, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

(IANS)