Police on Monday said an occultist and his accomplice were detained for questioning in the mysterious mass deaths of 11 members of a Delhi family on Sunday.

Police said it recovered handwritten notes in the prayer area of their two-storey house in Pant Nagar in Burari, revealing a possible mystical connection to the deaths.

All but one of the bodies were found hanging from the ceiling. Most of them were blindfolded, gagged and their hands tied behind the back.

The oldest, Narayan Devi, 77, was found on the floor with signs of strangulation.

The notes hinting at mysticism were found in a diary in the prayer area. The texts of pages discussed spirituality, salvation, rituals and few dates of last month.

Articles used for offering in worship such as ghee and grains were also recovered from the house.

The police suspect the role of an occultist or a godman behind the deaths.

“We are suspecting that the family may have died in a ritual which went wrong,” a police officer said.

The officer said the notes had instructions like: “Everyone should be blindfolded properly, nothing but zenith should be visible to the eyes.

“Worship the banyan tree for seven days at a stretch with devotion. If somebody comes home, then do it the next day. Choose Thursday and Sunday for this.

“If the elderly woman (Narayani Devi) can’t stand, she can lie down in another room.

“Use dim light for offering rituals. Offer the rituals between 12 and 1 a.m so that no one disturbs you.

“When you all were hanging during that period, god will miraculously appear and save you all at the moment.”

The police officer said almost every instruction in the note seemed to have been followed by the family for “obtaining salvation”.

One important rule was that the family was to avoid using mobile phones, he said.

It took the police a few hours to recover their mobile phones from the house.

Vivek Kumar, a neighbour, said the family used to hold religious rituals and prayed regularly every two hours in morning and evening the last few weeks.

The deceased found hanging were Narayan Devi’s two sons Bhavnesh Bhatia, 50, and Lalit Bhatia, 45, and two daughters Pratibha, 57, and Priyanka, 33, who got engaged last month.

Bhavesh’s wife Savita, 48, and their three children Nitu, 25, Monu, 23, and Dhruv, 15, were also found dead along with Lalit’s wife Tina, 42, and their son Shivam, 15.

The Bhatias ran a grocery store and a plywood outlet in the neighborhood.

Narayan Devi’s eldest son Dinesh Bhatia lives in Rajasthan’s Kota and another daughter Sujata lives in Panipat in Haryana.

A controversial provincial city mayor in the Philippines known for parading drug suspects in public was shot dead during a flag-raising ceremony on Monday.

Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili was declared dead on arrival at a hospital from a single bullet wound to the chest, sustained as he and civil servants sang the national anthem during a ceremony in city hall in Batangas province southwest of Manila.

Police Superintendent Renato Mercado told CNN that a video showed scenes of panic seconds after the shot was fired. Halili was seen standing in a line with government employees as the flag was raised. Suddenly, a single shot rang out followed by screams and chaos.

The mayor’s security returned fire, according to state media Philippines News Agency (PNA), causing panic as government officials and staff ran for cover.

The police official said Halili was killed by a sniper.

Another investigator told a radio station that a high-powered rifle was used in the attack.

The mayor had gained prominence for implementing a “walk of shame” for drug suspects in 2016 where he paraded them for people to see and then in 2017 when he was linked by the government to illegal drugs.

Gerry Laresma, the government employee who shot the video, told PNA that Halili had received death threats because of his strong anti-crime push.

“We are shocked, we are saddened,” Vice Mayor Jhoanna Villamor, who was standing next to Halili, told radio station DZBB after the shooting.

Philippines National Police Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said a regional special task group had been convened to investigate the killing and that the suspect parades were being considered as a motive.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque condemned the killing, saying that Halili was an ally of Rodrigo Duterte and that justice would be served.

A village panchayat head was arrested on Monday while a JD-U leader and two others were detained after a RTI activist and his friend were shot dead by criminals in Bihar’s Jamui district, police said.

Hundreds of angry residents blocked a road, burnt tyres and shouted slogans against the state government to denounce the killings, disrupting traffic on National Highway 333.

Valmiki Yadav and his friend Karu Yadav were attacked by motorcycle-borne assailants near Bichwe village on Sunday evening.

Panchayat head Krishna Ravidas was arrested and Janata Dal-United block president Suresh Mahto and two others were detained for interrogation, said police officer Rampukar Singh.

“Prima facie, it seems to be a pre-planned conspiracy,” he said.

Valmiki Yadav is said to have exposed several rackets and financial irregularities in the public welfare schemes and developmental works in the district.

This is the third such crime in the last three months. A Right to Information (RTI) activist was shot dead in Vaishali district in April whereas another RTI activist was shot dead in East Champaran district last month.

Fugitive business tycoon Vijay Mallya today dismissed the statement made by an Enforcement Directorate official claiming that he is attempting a “plea bargain”. The official had said that Vijay Mallya’s recent offer, to pay all his dues if his seized assets were freed, is not an option.
Refuting the Enforcement Directorate official, Mr Mallya tweeted, “Media reports quote an ED official stating that I am attempting a plea bargain. Would respectfully suggest that the official read the ED charge sheet first.”

According to the Economic Times, the ED official had dismissed Mr Mallya’s offer calling it “an attempt at plea bargaining and a bid to bolster his case against extradition to India from Britain.”

In his tweet this morning, Mr Mallya also wrote “I would invite the ED to advance the same plea bargain theory in Court in front of whom I have placed my assets.”

Media reports quote an ED official stating that I am attempting a plea bargain. Would respectfully suggest that the official read the ED charge sheet first. I would invite the ED to advance the same plea bargain theory in Court in front of whom I have placed my assets.

According to the report, Mr Mallya, in an e-mail to the Economic Times, claimed that some of the assets that had been seized by the investigating agency predated the establishment of his now-defunct company Kingfisher Airlines.

“The ED allegations and attachment of assets are solely based on funds loaned to Kingfisher Airlines by PSU banks…The assets attached were acquired well before Kingfisher Airlines even started and cannot be considered proceeds of crime to legally justify the attachments,” Mr Mallya stated in his e-mail.

To this, the Enforcement Directorate official said, “All the assets of an accused are seized in such cases, regardless of their provenance.” He went on to say that the notion of plea bargaining – a deal made by the accused in exchange for concessions by the prosecution – did not apply.

According to the report, the ED official said, “Vijay Mallya is offering a plea bargain, which will not work in our country, by trying to say he intends to repay banks and that he should be allowed to sell his assets…As an absconder, he can no longer dictate terms in India, and the assets are no longer in his name to sell.”

Mr Mallya had released a statement recently that he had sought approvals from a court in Karnataka to sell assets worth Rs. 13,900 crore to repay creditors including banks. He also released a letter to PM Modi in an attempt “to put things in the right perspective.”

The official claimed that the Enforcement Directorate had not received any copy of the affidavit filed by Mr Mallya before the Karnataka High Court last week, contrary to the businessman’s claims.

Less than a week ago, Mr Mallya broke his silence over the controversy surrounding him of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs. 9,000 crores. The fugitive liquor baron, in a series of tweets, claimed that he had been falsely framed as the “poster boy of Bank default and a lightning rod of public anger”.

He also reiterated that he is making every effort, in good faith to settle dues with the banks, “but if politically-motivated factors interfere, there is nothing he can do.”

Shillong, June 30 (IANS) A mentally challenged man shot dead a 65-year-old woman in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district, police said on Friday.

According to police, the incident took place on Thursday evening in Old Bhaitbari village when Habinur Rahman fired at Salam Bewa from his father’s single barrel shotgun.

“She was hit in the eye and died on the spot,” district police chief M.G.R. Kumar said.

Following the incident, Rahman’s family members fled from the village. However, police seized the weapon used for the murder and some live ammunition from the crime scene. They also recovered a certificate of mental illness of the accused from his house.

A manhunt is on to nab Rehman.

In an abrupt move, the Board of Directors of the Bank of Maharashtra on Friday resolved to remove arrested CEO and Managing Director Ravindra P. Marathe and Executive Director Rajendra K. Gupta, from all functional responsibilities with immediate effect.

According to a statement, Executive Director A.C. Rout has been appointed in their place at the Pune-headquartered bank.

The development came nine days after the Pune police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) swooped on the bank and nabbed Marathe, Gupta and five others in a case of around Rs 2,43 crore fraudulent loans extended to the Pune-based DSK Group.

The EOW also arrested the public sector bank’s Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande from Ahmedabad and former CMD Sushil Muhnot from Jaipur.

The 83-year-old bank is ranked among the leading PSBs in India, and the arrests of high-ranking officials had sent shockwaves in industry and corporate circles.

Besides, two officials of the DS Kulkarni Group, chartered accountant Sunil Ghatpande and Vice President, Engineering, Rajiv Newaskar, were also arrested in the case.

Two days ago, Marathe was granted bail and some others were enlarged on bail on Friday, even as the issue snowballed into a major political controversy.

Several political parties including the Nationalist Congress Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) raised questions over the arrest of Marathe and other BoM officials, ostensibly without the knowledge of the state government.

MNS President Raj Thackeray demanded why no action was taken against top officials of Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank and the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank Ltd Director and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah – whose ADCB collected the highest amount of spiked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes five days after the November 8, 2016 demonetisation.

Following a complaint by Jitendra N. Mulekar, an investor who is a senior citizen, 19 people have been arrested by the EOW sleuths for misusing their powers to sanction huge amounts of loans to shell companies.

According to the investigators, the bank’s top executive and other officials colluded with the DSK Group “with dishonest and fraudulent intentions to sanction and disburse the amount of the bank (BoM)” under the garb of loans and the money was later siphoned off.

All the arrested accused were charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, pertaining to cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.

The Pune-based mega group’s owners D.S. Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti were arrested in February on charges of cheating over 4,000 investors of over Rs 1,150 crore and diverting bank loans of nearly Rs 2,900 crore.

Among the charges are false papers showing purported loans received from other banks like State Bank of India, Union Bank Of India, Syndicate Bank, IDBI Bank, Vijaya Bank and others, clearing loans without following due procedures or exercising due diligence.

Last month, the Maharashtra government ordered attachment of more than 120 properties, 275 bank accounts and four dozen vehicles belonging to the owners and the company invoking the provisions of Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act, 1999.

The CBI has summoned Air Asia non-Executive Director R. Venkataramanan for questioning on July 3 in a case registered against airline group CEO Tony Fernandes for allegedly trying to circumvent rules to get an international flying license for the airline, said informed sources.

Earlier, the CBI had registered a case against Fernandes, a Malaysian billionaire in this matter.

The CBI had named Fernandes and others in a criminal case of violating FDI norms in giving effective management to a foreign entity through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s clearance in 2013 and attempt to bribe for tweaking rules to get a licence for its joint venture to operate international flights.

The CBI FIR had also named “unknown public servants” of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the then IPB officials, Venkataramanan, who is a nominee of the Tata Sons, who hold a 49 per cent stake in the airline, and AirAsia Group Deputy CEO T. Kanagalingam alias Bo Lingam.

An audio clip of actor-turned-MLA K.B. Ganesh Kumar criticising the role of politicians and four actresses who resigned from the artistes body AMMA, surfaced on Saturday.

The Pathanapuram MLA can be heard calling the politicians “limelight hoggers” and the four actresses “perennial trouble-makers”. Kumar was in conversation with Association of Malayalam Movie Artists general secretary Edavela Babu.

In the clip, Kumar advises Babu to “just keep silent” as the outburst over the revoking of Dileep’s suspension in AMMA will die down in two days.

“These four actresses have never been active in AMMA, nor in the field of acting. They never participated in the AMMA shows and are perennial trouble makers.

“With regards to politicians, they are interested to give sound bites to TV channels just to stay afloat in public domain.

“You just keep quiet and need not respond. The media is out to create ruckus and the only thing they have is negativity in their news.

“What should be noted is AMMA is not a political body, but formed to look after our welfare and hence the public also need not be unduly concerned,” says Kumar.

Leading actresses from the Malayalam film industry — Rima Kallingal, Remya Nambisan, Geetu Mohandas had resigned on Monday along with the victim of the February 2017 kidnapping case in which Dileep was alleged to have been involved that landed him in jail for 85 days.

The audio clip has come a day after the CPI-M decided not to seek an explanation from Ganesh Kumar for his stand in the ongoing reinstatement row of accused actor Dileep’s membership in the AMMA.

On Friday, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Kerala Secretariat gave a clean chit MPs Innocent and Mukesh and Kumar by deciding not to seek any explanation from them on this issue.

Dileep was suspended from AMMA last year but on June 24, at the annual general body meeting of the body, the new set of office bearers led by superstar Mohanlal revoked his suspension.

Since then there has been a huge outcry from several quarters against this decision and it’s at this time Kumar’s audio clip surfaced.

The row over Dileep’s re-induction into the Malayalam film artistes’ body AMMA refused to die down even after he said he would not return till being cleared in the case of abducting and sexually assaulting an actress, with Youth Congress activists on Friday taking out a protest march to the home of the association’s chief, superstar Mohanlal, near here.

Shouting slogans against Mohanlal, the protesters demanded that an actor of his stature should not resort to any sort of measure that will affect womanhood by siding with people who are accused and he should not have taken the decision to revoke Dileep’s suspension.

Mohanlal was not present in the house at the time, and some of the protesters, who tried to barge into the compound, were stopped from creating any damage.

Meanwhile in the state capital, on hearing about the Youth Congress protest march, angry activists of the Mohanlal Fans Association took out a march and said if anyone dares to attack their dear superstar, they will not sit idle.

“He is only the (AMMA) President and the decision is taken by the Committee and the Annual General Body Meeting… why is he alone being targeted. If this is not stopped, we will also be forced to act,” warned a fan.

Mohanlal, who took over as President of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) last Sunday, and the new team in their first decision revoked Dileep’s suspension which was ordered by the association’s Executive Committee last year, saying it was done against the by-laws of AMMA.

The decision led to a huge public outcry against Mohanlal and subsequently four leading actress resigned from AMMA while three other actresses wrote to the AMMA General Secretary to call an emergency committee meeting on July 13 or 14 to discuss this issue.

Several state ministers and leaders from both the Congress and the BJP slammed the decision of AMMA and it was against this backdrop that Dileep wrote to the AMMA General Secretary on Thursday, saying he did not want to return until he is exonerated.

In a related development, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist’s State Secretariat meeting gave a clean chit to party MP and veteran comedy artiste Innocent and other actor-turned legislators – state legislator Mukesh and K.B. Ganesh Kumar, whose party is a friendly ally of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government, by deciding not to seek any explanation from them on this issue.

While Innocent was the outgoing AMMA President after an 18-year term, the other two are Vice Presidents of the body and were facing flak from several quarters that they were using their political influence to give Dileep an easy return to AMMA.

Vijayan, who is yet to make any statement on this issue, shooed away the media on Friday when they came to ask his comment on the Dileep row.

 
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized 95 kilos of ganja (cannabis indica), meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh, from West Bengal’s Nadia district and arrested one person in this connection, an official said on Friday.

“The NCB seized the ganja from the residence of Narabul Khan in Nadia district’s Narayanpur during a raid on Thursday. Khan has been arrested on the charge of illegal storage and supply of narcotic substance,” a senior NCB official said.

“The seized ganja was procured from Odisha and was supposed to be smuggled to Bangladesh through Khan’s associates in Nadia’s Krishnanagar,” he said.

Both the accused and the seized contraband were presented in the Krishnanagar court on Friday.