Jose, Shaji in court for bail

Jose Mathew and Shaji John, who were arrested for allegedly molesting a US woman Kelly Pecker, on Tuesday moved a Sessions Court, seeking bail.

Following a plea from the prosecution to adjourn the case on the ground that the camera recovered was sent for analysis to ascertain whether any photograph was taken, principal sessions judge Aruna Jagadeesan posted to June 20, the hearing of the petition.

In their petitions, they submitted that due to nonavailability of medical test report, they were denied bail earlier. Now, the result of medical examination was submitted before the court.As per the result, the complainant was not at all sexually abused.

Hence, this court may consider the release of result as a change of circumstances to entertain the present petition.

IT firm cheats 400 employees

The chairman and managing director of Dolphin Solutions, an IT company situated at Nandagiri Hills, was arrested by the Jubilee Hills police here on Friday after a case of cheating was filed against the firm.

The police arrested Gali Vinay Naidu for allegedly cheating 400 employees to the tune of Rs 4 crore and closing down the company.

Vinay is from Chittoor and had set up the company a year ago by renting a building at Nandagiri Hills after taking huge loans.

He allegedly used to take Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh from each of the 400 employees to appoint them. He allegedly gained their confidence by paying them salaries for the first three months and promising them of better prospects and foreign tours.

However, Vinay allegedly failed to pay back the loans, rents of the building, payments for various services and even stopped paying salaries to the employees.

A few months ago, he closed down the firm and absconded.

Several employees of the company lodged a complaint with the Jubilee Hills Police Station who in turn nabbed the accused on Friday.

He will be produced before the court on Saturday, the Jubilee Hills police inspector, Mr B.Limba Reddy, said

Husband fled with our child

Tahseen weeps as she shows the photograph of her daughter Soha and husband Khalid Oman. Soha has been allegedly kidnapped by her father.

A foreign national, married to a local girl, has been charged with kidnapping his three and a half year old daughter from the city.

Khalid Osman (32), a physiotherapist from Sudan, married Tahseen Sultan (26), a resident of Hakeempet, 10 years ago. Six years after marriage, they went to Sudan. Once there, Khalid reportedly started harassing Tahseen and locked her up in a dark room everyday.

Fed up with the torture, she returned to India on February 14 last with her daughter and started staying with her mother.

After six months, Khalid Oman also came to the city and started harassing her again. On May 2, he kidnapped his daughter Soha from his wife’s maternal house and escaped.

Tahseen filed a complaint against her husband in the Banjara Hills police station.

Mr Ashok Kumar, subinspector of police, said: “A case has been registered under Section 498A IPC and investigation is on.” Police say Khalid has taken shelter in Delhi.

“My husband behaved like a sadist. He called me up last night from Delhi and threatened to sell my child.

Though I filed a complaint in the police station, the police doesn’t seem to bother. I want my child back at any cost. I cannot live without her,” said Tahseen.

5,000 women still untraced

The state government’s proposal to establish a Women and Child Protection Bureau (WCPB) in the home department is yet to take off. It was meant to be umbrella organisation to deal with crimes against women.

At present, there is a Women Protection Cell attached to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) to deal with crimes against women. But it only deals with major cases and leaves the rest to the local police.

However, the local police is ignoring cases related to trafficking of women. This is worrying the CID.

“Many instances of trafficking in women have come up in Vijayawada but cases are not being registered under the relevant Act,” said a top CID official.

“We wrote many letters to the Vijayawada police commissioner but there was no response. We are taking up the issue again now.” The government had decided to set up the WCPB after the High Court rapped it over the alarming increase in cases of missing women and children. It even summoned the director general of police for a personal explanation.

“There are many laws to protect women but a unified command is lacking to effectively enforce the laws and deal with the crimes,” said the inspector general of police (CID), Mr S. Umapathi.

The home minister, Mr K.Jana Reddy, announced in the budget session of the Assembly that the WCPB would soon be put in place but that has not happened as planned.

Mr Jana Reddy, in fact, held a meeting with women MLAs to take their suggestions on the WCPB. They suggested tough measures, besides good counselling programmes, to deal with the crimes.

Sources said the home department would consider all these suggestions while framing the framing the structure of WCPB.

Meanwhile, as per an undertaking given by the DGP to the High Court, a standard operating procedure has been evolved for station house officers to investigate cases of missing children and women. Statistics reveal that cases relating to missing children and women has gone up sharply in the last four years.

In all, 13,557 such cases were reported between 2004 and 2007 of which only 9,496 cases resulted in the missing persons returning safely. “This is posing a big challenge to us,” said a senior police officer. Even now, 4,061 persons remain untraced causing great anxiety to their families and police, which has been pulled up by the HC.

Cuddalore stalker nabbed

The police detained a Kannada speaking man, suspected to be behind the several murderous attacks on villagers in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday night. A village patrol team nabbed the man after he was found moving in a suspicious manner with bloodstains on his clothes.

People living in over 50 villages in Cuddalore had been spending sleepless nights for the last few weeks after an unidentified man brutally killed two persons and injured many during night attacks.

“We have strong suspicion that the man we detained could be behind the two murders and other attacks.

All the people were attacked when they were sleeping.

The man we picked up had no injuries on his body but had bloodstains on his veshti. We are sending the bloodstained clothes for DNA test as the man was not co-operating when ques tioned. We found that he is mentally unstable,” Mr Pradip Kumar, superintendent of police, Cuddalore district, told this newspaper on Sunday.

First murder was reported on May 9 in Kothavaheri village where an auto rickshaw driver Ravi (30) was the victim. A farmer named Balasubramanian (28) was killed two days later. The unidentified man reportedly attacked many other villagers also. All attacks took place when the victims were asleep.

According to the police, the Kannada speaking man was not ready to talk despite the authority getting an interpreter to talk to him. “He is mentally unstable. We don’t see any reason for him to be roaming around in the villages. Only a patrol team from the village caught him.

We are positive about his involvement in the attacks.

Right now he is a suspect.

Only after DNA tests we can confirm his involvement,” the official added.

After the reports about attacks by unidentified man started appearing, senior police officials had deployed more than 250 men in different villages along with local patrol teams.

When the police heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday night after catching the suspect, another attack was reported on Sunday morning triggering speculation that the actual culprit is still at large. However, a senior official claimed that the latest incident, in which an old lady was attacked, is not related to serial attacks.

“The old lady was attacked after she had a family problem,” the official said.

Complaint filed on Gold Quest

After the alleged Gold Quest scandal came to light, the first case against the company was registered in the city on Wednesday night.

A 65-year-old retired government employee, Mr Radhakrishna of Tarnaka, lodged a case with the Mahankali police on Wednesday night against Gold Quest and an agent claiming that they together cheated him of Rs 27,000 in 2006.

According to the police, in 2006, a friend of Radhakrishna introduced him to a Gold Quest agent, C.Srinivas.

The agent allegedly assured the complainant that by paying Rs 27,600 Mr Radhakrishna can join the scheme and if he gets another member to join as well, he would earn Rs 11,500 per month. Three months after Mr Radhakrishna paid the membership money of Rs 27,000, he was given a gold and a silver coin worth Rs 6,000 by the company, the police said. As Radhakrishna did not introduce anyone else he did not get any further incentives.

Though the Gold Quest office at Surya Towers in Mahankali was locked since the Gold Quest scam came to light, on Wednesday Mr Radhakrishna decided to lodge a complaint.

Based on the complaint lodged by Mr Radhakrishna, police registered a cheating case under section 420 of IPC and cases under sections 4 and 5 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act 1978 against Gold Quest and agent Srinivas.

Steps to prevent theft of babies

In a bid to put an end to the “mixing” of newborn and the alleged “lifting” of male babies from the Erode GH and to avoid the ensuing conflicts, the footprints of the babies will be maintained as records in the Medical Record Department along with the details of the respective parents.

This initiative is first of its kind mooted in the Erode GH and comes close to the increasing number of babies being swapped besides the babies that go missing from the maternity wards in the hospital.

The simple procedure would help avoid the complicated, time consuming and expensive DNA tests, Dr. Hussain Ali told this newspaper.

The impression of the right foot is taken of the male babies and left of the female.

With an average of 18 deliveries per day, footprints that are as unique as the fingerprints have been made mandatory.

Initially CCTVs were suggested to keep an eye on the mishappenings at the labour wards. Even if funds for these could be managed it was not foolproof and could be manipulated unlike the footprints, he said.

Ship near Somalia coas

The hijacked Jordanian cargo ship with 10 Indians among its crew was traced three days after it was commandeered by heavily armed Somali pirates off the Somalian coast.

According to reports received here on Tuesday, the ship M V Victoria was located at Garacad, about 600 kms north of Somalian capital Moghadishu. Further details are awaited and it was immediately not known if any ransom demand was made.

The ship, which left Mumbai early this month carrying humanitarian aid, was hijacked about 55 kms near Moghadishu on Saturday in a string of attacks off the lawless Somalian coast, according to director general of Shipping.

4,200 tonnes of bagged sugar were being taken to the war-ravaged Somalia hit by food shortages. News of the vessel being traced came even as Indian Navy ships were put on high alert. Officials of the Kenyabased East Africa Seafarers’ Association were also involved in efforts to locate the ship.

Destroyer INS Delhi has been put on stand-by and is ready to sail at a moment’s notice, Navy sources said.

Sea pirates in three speed boats with heavy arms and guns hijacked the ship which had 21 crew members. Besides the 10 Indians there were two Burmese, two Bangladeshis, three Kenyans and two Tanzanians. The ship is owned by Sharjah-based Five Seas Company and operated by Sharjah-based Marwan Shipping. MV Victoria, registered in Jordan, was built in 1979.

“The pirates have not made any demands yet,” Mr Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme said on Monday.

Ship with 10 Indian sailors hijacked off Somalia coast

A year after it missed getting hijacked on the seas wrapping the Horn of Africa, the directorate-general of shipping (DGS) on Monday confirmed that Merchant Vessel Victoria had been hijacked.

The DGS said the vessel had been hijacked off the Somalian coast on Saturday with at least ten Indians on board. The hijacking allegedly occurred on the 3,700 km coastline of Somalia, large stretches of it not patrolled by Somali coast guard or international sea safety agencies.This is the third such case in this year so far.

According to a top DGS official they were investigating the matter but were hindered in their efforts as there was no intimation about the hijacking from the ships owners.

The 3,340 gross register tonnage (GRT) vessel MV Victoria registered in Jordan and made in 1979 had 12 crewmembers from India, Tanzania, Pakistan and Bangladesh.At the time of the incident, the master and crew gave a distress signal.There is no update on the safety of the crew so far.

The International Maritime Organisation had issued guidelines to member states because of the increasing number of cases of piracy and armed robbery on ships off the coast of Somalia.

India has alerted the Coast Guard in Somalia and the International Maritime Bureau piracy centre in Kuala Lumpur and London.

The ship laden with cargo had sailed from Mumbai earlier this month and went missing about 55 nautical miles off the Somalian coast. The ship was believed to be carrying sugar donated by Denmark from Mumbai to Mogadishu towards humanitarian aid.

According to shipping officials, the hijackers were in all probability militia fighters from Somalia.

They said these incidents occurred when militias ruled the roost in Somalia. However the defeat of several militias by armed forces of Somalia and other African Horn nations meant the pirates have made a comeback.

“They are well-equipped with speed boats and high end satellite phones through which they track merchant ships. These were probably former militia fighters who after having done with their wars have now entered the world of high sea piracy,” said an official.

According to shipping officials they have learnt from the Kenyan Seafarers’ Assistance Programme that the pirates boarded the ship from three speedboats and took the vessel north towards Hobyo region.Last year MV Victoria was involved in another failed hijacking attempt which failed food aid for Somali.

12 die in Bengal violence

The third and final phase of panchayat polls in West Bengal held on Sunday proved to be the bloodiest, with at least one dozen people dead and dozens of others injured. The first phase held on May 11 went off peacefully, while six people were killed in the second phase on May 14.
On Sunday, elections were held in seven districts — North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Birbhum and Murshidabad. The worst-affected was Murshidabad, where at least 12 people were killed, most of them in just one police station area — Domkal. One person who was injured at Nanoor in Birbhum district on Saturday night in a bomb explosion succumbed to his injuries early on Sunday. He was allegedly a CPI(M) supporter who was injured while making bombs.

On Saturday night, the body of another CPI(M) supporter was found at Madarihat in Jalpaiguri. On the eve of the polls in Murshidabad, the death of a CPI(M) supporter gave ample indication about the mayhem which was about to unfold. Sharful Sheikh was killed on the spot when the bomb he and his friends were making exploded. The incident occurred at Notundira village, in the Lalgola police station area. An hour before the polling began at 7 am, 42-year old Bhavesh Mondal was killed when CPI(M) supporters allegedly threw bombs and fired bullets when a dispute occurred over queue formation. The incident took place at Uttarchar Matherdia Primary School in Rani Nagar police station area. A critically injured person, Rafiqul Islam, was rushed to Kolkata for treatment.

Sadhu hurt in suicide bid

Swami Himaval Bhadrananda, a controversial godman, on Saturday fired shots inside the Aluva police station after threatening to kill himself.

The swami was brought to the station in the morning after he called up cops and mediapersons and told them that he was going to commit suicide.

Police had filed a case against Bhadrananda , after he barged into the office of a Malayalam newspaper and threatened the staff for publishing a report terming him a fraud.

On Saturday, mediapersons rushed to Bhadrananda’s house after getting his call and found him sitting with a .32 pistol in his hand. He spoke to them while holding it against his forehead.

Meanwhile, the police also arrived and persuaded the swami to come with them. He did so, but held the gun firmly to his forehead.

The dramatic scenes continued at the station. Cops tried to persuade him for an hour , but all in vain .Finally, the media corps waiting outside the station barged in and this provoked the swami.

“You have destroyed my life,” he shouted. You should not do this to anybody else.” Cops, who thought that the swami’s attention had been diverted, tried to snatch the pistol from him.

There was a scuffle in which the gun fired twice.

Police finally overpowered Bhadrananda and snatched the pistol from him. The swami suffered a minor injury on his hand. The reporter of a Malayalam daily swooned thinking he was hit by a bullet. But no injuries were found on his body. Bhadrananda too was admitted in a hospital.

Police charged cases of attempted suicide and attempted murder against him.

The Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, strongly condemned the way the police handled the issue and said it besmirched the image of the government.

Traders make money through smuggling

Following the Sri Lankan customs ban on carrying large quantity of trade goods by air passengers since May 15, at least some of the traders have found another way to make money - smuggling. At least three traders, including one from the island nation, were arrested for smuggling gold and star tortoises on Thursday in Chennai.

The customs officials at Chennai airport seized six gold biscuits, weighing 760 gm, from two traders who arrived in Chennai from Colombo on Thursday night. “The traders were found carrying gold biscuits packed in polythene bag stuffed in their anus,” a senior customs official said.

The two, identified as B.Ismail Harif and M.I.Nizamuddin from Ramanathapuram, were regular travellers engaged in taking clothes from Chennai to Colombo for business.

On Thursday night when they arrived they tried to walk through the green channel saying that they had nothing to declare. But customs officials, on suspicion, detained the duo and did a body scan on them. It was found that they were carrying gold biscuits.

On Friday morning with the help of a medical team, customs officials, took the biscuits out of their body.The two later told the officials that they were offered Rs 1000 to carry one biscuit.

In another incident, the customs official seized 235 live star tortoises, worth over Rs. 3.5 lakh from a Lankan trader who was going to Colombo from Chennai on Thursday night.

“This is the first time airport customs are detaining a Lankan national for trying to smuggle star tortoises,” the customs official said.The arrested Lankan was identified as Mohamed Murzil from Jaffna.

Huge heroin haul at airport

In one of the biggest drug busts in the city, a Thai woman was caught at Shamshabad airport on Saturday with a consignment of heroin worth Rs 2.22 crore that she was attempting to smuggle to Kuala Lumpur.

Pincahao Khronvipa alias Pinkae, 34, who was to take a Malaysian Airlines flight, checked in without a hitch. The security at the GMR Rajiv Gandhi International Airport failed to detect the drug concealed in her baggage. Pincahao, who senior police officials said was a prostitute working as carrier for a suspected Nigerian national, was stopped just before she boarded the flight.

The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) additional director-general, Dr P. Babu, said the woman was arrested on an intelligence alert.

He said Pincahao had come to India from Bangkok and stayed at Delhi. She flew into Hyderabad from Delhi at 8 30 pm on Friday and stayed at the airport overnight. Pincahao, who was about to board Malaysian Air lines flight MH 199 at 1 am on Saturday, had concealed the drug in a false cavity in her suitcase. The police said an African national had given her the consignment and she was to be paid between $2,000 and $3,000 to carry it to Kaula Lumpur.

A case was booked against Pincahao under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Sub stances Act. The accused was produced before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge in Ranga Reddy district.

Police officials, who suspect the involvement of the international drug mafia in the incident, said narcotic cartels could be using Hyderabad as a transit point due to lax security at the airport. “This was Pincahao’s first visit to the country. Her passport shows that she regularly visited several Gulf countries and Singapore and Malaysia,” a senior police official said.

“She could have been used as a carrier by a major drug cartel,” he added. “We can’t rule out the involvement of the international drug mafia.” Other police officials said the incident raised questions about security at the new airport.

“Check-in baggage is supposed to be screened by GMR personnel. However the heroin got past the security checks and she would have boarded the flight had DRI officials not arrested her,” said one police official.

In a similar incident last week, DRI men arrested a Filipino carrying 2.7 kg of heroin worth Rs 2.7 crore at the Chennai International Airport.

“The modus operandi in the Hyderabad and Chennai incidents are almost identical,” a police official said.

Two associates of Qaiser arrested

Task force officials on Thursday arrested two offenders, Ahmed Hussain alias Julfi Ahmed, 30, and Tabrej Khan alias Tabrej, 23, near Kabbaddi stadium, Karwan, and seized swords from them.

They are associates of Qaiser, said police officials.

Julfi Ahmed was accused in murder cases registered with the Tappachabutra station, while Tabrej is accused of conspiring to murder their rivals Sheru, Lateef and Firdous, said police sources.

Woman killed over family issue

A 50-year-old woman was allegedly murdered by her husband after an argument over a family issue. The Kulsumpura police said Bhagyamma had come to the city from Hasthinapuram with her husband, Dasaiah, 55, to attend a family function.

“At night, both of them fought. Later, her body was found with severe head injuries in Kulsumpura,” said the Inspector, Mr D. Ch. Hussain.

Fake bomb calls flood Nampally court

The metropolitan sessions court complex in Nampally has become a frequent target of hoax bomb threats.

Court proceedings have been disrupted on several occasions in the past few months because of these fake threats.

On Thursday, at about 10 am, the family of a chief metropolitan magistrate received an anonymous call which warned that bombs were planted in the complex and could go off at any moment.

The call came to the Judges Quarters in Marredpally after the magistrate left home for court. The family alerted the magistrate, who in turn informed the police.

“We dispatched bomb disposal teams and checked the premises thoroughly for about one and half hours, but found nothing,” said the Nampally Inspector, Mr Umendar. “We traced the hoax call to a phone booth in Mehdipatnam.” In March, a similar bomb threat sent the police on a tizzy for three hours. Another hoax call was also received in March. In February too, a similar call created panic. Last year, the court received hoax calls in July and then again in August.

The complex has 35 court halls and every time a bomb threat call is received, the bomb disposal teams of the City Security Wing have to search the entire building with sniffer dogs, metal detectors and other equipment. None of the anonymous persons have been traced so far as they made the calls from coin-operated telephone booths.

Orissa police remands Raja

A day after his arrest here, Orissa police on Tuesday took into custody Raja Acharya, the prime accused in the murder of Biranchi Das, the coach of child marathon runner Budhia.

Inspector-general of police, Mr Kishan Kumar, said that Orissa police team arrived in the state on Tuesday morning and took Raja Acharya into the custody.

The alleged gangster was produced before a local court and transit remand was attained.

Orissa police team headed by assistant commissioner of police, Mr Suresh Mahapatra, will be taking Acharya to Bhubaneshwar by Wednesday.

“We are yet to decide when to take him,” Mr Mahapatra said, outside the local court here. Acharya was arrested in Panaji on Monday in a joint operation by Orissa and Goa police.

Mr Mahapatra said that Raja has been on the run since the murder of the 40year-old judo coach and the police had launched an extensive search for him.

Earlier, a non-bailable warrant of arrest was issued against him and he was declared as an absconder on May 3 after Das was shot dead in Bhubaneswar on April 13.

The accused is wanted in more than 30 cases of extortion, murder and robbery.

3 men arrested with guns in court

Three private security guards who tried to enter a court in Nampally on Tuesday with their licensed .32 revolvers were arrested by the police.

Citing threat to his life, Mr Vamsi Mohan, a realtor from Jubilee Hills, had recently engaged three private security guards, Pankaj Prakash, Manish Thakur and Naresh Kumar.

The trio had come to the city three weeks ago and they hold gun licenses valid throughout the country, Nampally police said.

Mr Mohan is an accused in a murder case registered by the SR Nagar police station in 1999.

The Nampally police inspector Umendar who was frisking the entrants to the court found .32 revolvers on each of the security guards.

They were immediately arrested by the police. Private security guards cannot carry their weapons inside a court, said police officials.

The private guards said they were accompanying Mr Mohan for the trial.

Police said that the guards were at fault as they had not deposited their weapons at the local police station despite a notification issued by the city police.

Laddu aide held, let free

The police on Tuesday arrested Upendra Singh, a close associate of Gurvinder Singh alias Laddu, the prime accused in the Ayesha Meera murder case. He was released later after interrogation, police commissioner, Mr Rajendranath Reddy, said here on Tuesday. He was arrested from Jagitial in Karimnager district on Monday after which his parents approached the State Human Rights Commission on Tuesday.

Ayesha Meera, a firstyear B.Pharm student, was allegedly raped and murdered at a private hospital in Ibrahimpatnam on December 27.

The case has gained political significance with allegations of involvement of some ministers’ kin and a prolonged delay in investigation by the police.

Meanwhile, the home minister, Mr K. Jana Reddy on Tuesday said that the police had definite clues in the case.

“We will achieve a breakthrough very soon. The investigation has reached the final stages. The police have collected strong evidence against the suspects,” he said adding that the government would take stern action against the accused. “The investigation has now gained momentum and we have definite clues,” Mr Reddy added.

Depositors duped by Gold Quest

Multi level marketing firm Gold Quest/QuestNet, which is now in the dock in Chennai, is also wanted for duping thousands of people in Hyderabad.

The victims include police personnel, film industry workers and employees of IT companies.

It is alleged that the firm collected crores of rupees by giving gold coins or medallions to people and assuring them more money if they recruited more people.

Following the raids and arrests in Chennai, most of the Gold Quest offices in the city remained closed on Tuesday.

Chennai police on Saturday raided the offices of the company and arrested seven of its employees for cheating.

Police said film actor Chandramohan’s wife Jalandhara was the key member in the Gold Quest network and her office is situated in Himayatnagar.

“This is false propaganda against Gold Quest which is active in 180 countries.

There is no cheating and nobody suffered any loss,” reiterated Chandramohan while talking to reporters.

Meanwhile, members of the scheme thronged the offices of Gold Quest in Surya Towers in front of Parade Ground and other branches in Himayatnagar and Punjagutta.

“We were asked to pay Rs 30,000 initially and Rs 450 as registration,” said Ms Jyotsna, a member of the scheme. “They gave me a gold coin worth Rs 5,000.

But I got nothing else though I was promised more.” The CID had booked two separate cases against Gold Quest Company in 2007 in Vijayawada and the accused were arrested.

“Such multi-level marketing companies are dangerous and affect mostly those on the lower rungs,” said the former CID Superintendent of Police, Mr V.C. Sajjanar. “They are widely active in Vijayawada, Krishna and Hyderabad.” However, Gold Quest, the parent company of the MLM firm QuestNet based in Hong Kong, has been saying its operations are legitimate, though there is a ban on the firm Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.

In 2003, cases were booked against the company in Chennai. Thousands of people, especially from middle-class families are falling prey to multi-level marketing schemes.