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Precipitation likely in J&K during next 48 hours
The weather was cold and dry in J&K during the last 24 hours as the MeT office said on Friday that rain and snow is likely to occur in the next 48 hours.
“Rain and snow is likely to occur in J&K during the next 48 hours,” an official of the MeT department said.
Dense fog affected normal life in Jammu city today.
Srinagar had minus 5.5, Pahalgam minus 8.6 and Gulmarg minus 5 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature today.
In Ladakh region, Kargil had minus 18.1 and Leh minus 14.6 as the minimum temperature.
Jammu had 3.7, Katra 4.6, Batote 3.6, Banihal 5.4 and Bhaderwah 0.6 as the minimum temperature.
Sixth accused arrested in Anjali case, one still on the run
Delhi Police have arrested the sixth accused in connection with the death of Anjali, who was hit and dragged by a car for about 12 km in the early hours of January 1.
“In the Sultanpuri case, the sixth accused identified as Ashutosh, who owns the car, has been arrested as he had given false information to the police. Further investigation is on,” said Sagar Preet Hooda, the Special Commissioner of Police (law & order)
Earlier, police arrested five persons, who were in the car when the incident took place. They have been identified as Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mitthun and Manoj Mittal.
Sources said that Ashutosh, the Maruti Baleno owner and one another accused, Ankush Khanna, who is still absconding and is also brother of another accused Amit had talks with the five accused. As Amit did not have a driving licence, Deepak was told to tell police that he was in the driving seat at the time of incident.
“Amit was driving the car at the time of incident, not Deepak. Ankush and Ashutosh both have tampered with the evidence. Ankush, to save his brother, had asked Deepak to tell police that he was driving the car as Amit did not have the driving license,” said a source.
Ankush is still on the run and police teams are on hunt to nab him, said the official
Two arrested in K’taka schoolboy kidnap case
Karnataka Police cracked the kidnapping case of a schoolboy and arrested two persons in Kalaburagi on Friday.
The accused kidnapped the boy, a Class 4 student, on January 4 and demanded Rs 10 lakh from the parents.
The arrested persons have been identified as Arun Bhajanthri and Lakshmana Bhajanthri, residents of Santrasawadi locality in the city. The police conducted an operation in the early hours and rescued the boy, Sudarshan.
Sudarshan, son of Gurunath Rathod, a resident of Siddeshwara Colony and a teacher, was kidnapped by the accused persons when he was going to school. The boy had come out of his house and was waiting for the school bus.
The incident created tension and raised concerns among the parents who have school going children.
The accused, who came in an auto-rickshaw, on the pretext of asking for the address of a hospital engaged the boy into conversation and kidnapped him.
The accused later called his father and demanded for Rs 10 lakh and threatened that his son would be killed if he refused. The father lodged a complaint with the Vishwavidyalaya police station.
When the police launched the operation, the kidnappers left the boy in an isolated place in the outskirts of the city. After noticing the boy in school uniform at odd hours, the locals informed the police. The police rescued the boy and also nabbed the kidnappers.
Four held with contraband worth Rs 2 cr near Indo-Nepal border
Four suspected smugglers have been arrested with contraband worth over Rs 2 crore from Rupaidiha near the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Prashant Verma said that a joint patrol of local police and the Sashastra Seema Bal arrested the four suspected smugglers with 435 grams of smack.
The arrested accused were found carrying the banned drug when they were stopped and searched near Rupaidiha railway station.
The price of the seized contraband in the international market is estimated at Rs 2.17 crore, the police said.
The four have been identified as Taj Babu a.k.a. Sameer, Bablu a.k.a Mohammad Amin, Sanjay Kewat and Dinesh — all residents of Rupaidiha, Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Ashok Kumar said.
The police have lodged a case against the quartet under sections of the NDPS Act.
Measles outbreak in UP village, three children die
Three unvaccinated children in a family have lost their lives to measles within a span of just three weeks in the Danigarhi village in Unnao.
Thirty-five more children in the same village have developed rashes and are suffering from fever.
Out of these, three have been hospitalised due to their serious condition.
In view of the outbreak, the district health department has launched a vaccination drive to inoculate kids against measles despite resistance from locals.
A team of doctors has been deployed in the village to look into cases and check the spread of the disease.
Unnao chief medical officer (CMO) Satya Prakash has confirmed the three deaths due to measles. He said, “All the minor victims were unvaccinated. We are closely monitoring the situation. Our teams have vaccinated 60 per cent of the children in the village and are treating the ones down with measles.”
It has been learnt that doctors faced stiff resistance from the villagers during the vaccination drive. The doctors had to call clerics for intervention and later, necessary announcements were made from the places of worship.
District magistrate Apoorva Dubey also went to the village and spoke at length with the villagers and helped them clear their myths, said a senior health department official.
“The vaccination drive began in the village after intervention from the clerics and officials. However, some people are still not convinced and continue to stall. They are being spoken to regularly,” said the CMO.
UP man charred to death after touching high-tension wire at railway platform
A man was charred to death after coming in contact with AN overhead high-tension line on the railway track at the platform of the Kasganj train station in Uttar Pradesh.
The victim had climbed up the train bogie to bring back the slipper of a woman passenger which was snatched by a monkey at the platform.
Manoj Kumar, station manager at the Kasganj railway station, said on Friday: “The tragic incident took place on Thursday at platform of Kasganj railway station when slipper of a passenger was taken away by a monkey and dropped on top of a train bogie at the platform. The passenger requested for getting back the slipper and a man on the platform climbed on top of the bogie to bring it back.
“The man came in contact with 25,000 volt current flowing in high-tension line and he was charred to death on the spot. The deceased has been identified as Ashok Kumar.”
Rickshaw puller kills friend over sleeping space
A rickshaw puller was bludgeoned to death by his friend over sleeping space at an accommodation at a religious place, about 500 metres from the Uttar Pradesh Governor House here in Lucknow.
The police came to know about the incident only after some rickshaw pullers alerted them.
Several homeless rickshaw pullers get shelter at the accommodation at the religious place every night.
The victim, Imamul Khan, 60, had a verbal spat with one Shamsher a.k.a Chhote Lal Kori for sleeping at a place which was cosier in view of biting cold.
Later, Shamsher attacked Imamul and left him bleeding profusely.
Another rickshaw puller, Santosh Kumar Chauhan, spotted Imamul in a pool of blood and he alerted the staff of the religious place who, in turn, informed the police.
“Imamul was taken to a government hospital and was pronounced dead,” the Hazratganj police said.
The police registered a case on the complaint of Santosh who told police that he had seen Imamul and Shamsher quarrelling the previous night.
“I went to sleep ignoring their fight and later found Imamul had his head smashed with some heavy object and blood oozing out.
Police swung into action after the incident and a team started to hunt for Shamsher and arrested him on the way to Lucknow’s Charbagh railway station.
DCP, Central Zone, Aparna Rajat Kaushik said that Shamsher confessed to his crime and said that he had smashed him with a brick.
UP Police rescue child sold by traffickers, 6 held
The Uttar Pradesh Police have rescued a two-and-half-year-old boy, who was sold by human traffickers to a childless couple in Agra.
Six persons have been arrested in connection with the case.
The boy was the son of a woman labourer of Chunar area in Mirzapur district.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Mirzapur Santosh Kumar Mishra said that the police have arrested Usha Gond, Rambabu Sonkar, Nitu Sonkar of Mirzapur, Veerpal, Sudha Singh Sisodia and Param Singh of Agra.
The SP said Rs 25,000 cash was also recovered from the alleged child traffickers. The rescued child was reunited with his mother.
When police started investigating the matter, it came to light that the woman labourer, whose husband had died recently, was contacted by the accused who promised to get her a job in Agra.
Later, they took the woman and her child to Agra and they stayed at the place arranged by them.
Accused Usha, Rambabu and Nitu fled the spot after collecting the money from buyers.
Later, the woman was informed by Veerpal, Sudha and Param that she and her child had been sold.
The woman somehow managed to escape and reported the matter to the police.
Govt bans TRF, designates Sheikh Sajjad Gul as terrorist
The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, also known as the ‘invisible enemy’ has been declared a banned organisation.
Responsible for a series of killings of soft targets in Kashmir Valley, TRF, according to a Union Home Ministry notification, is recruiting gullible youth through the dark web for the furtherance of terrorist activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir.
The group came into existence in 2019 as a proxy of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was primarily involved in numerous terror acts, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The now proscribed terrorist outfit is involved in psychological operations on social media platforms for inciting people in Kashmir to join terrorist ranks by waging war against the government. It has been involved in a number of killings of Kashmiri Pandits and other non-Muslims who are trying to earn a living in the Valley.
The Home Ministry said Sheikh Sajjad Gul is a commander of TRF and has been designated as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967.
Police to take five accused to Murthal
Delhi Police will take the five persons accused in the death case of Anjali — the 20-year-old woman who met a painful end after being hit and dragged by a car for around 12 km on the outskirts of Delhi in the early hours of January 1 — to Murthal in Haryana and confront them with 50 other persons to recreate the crime scene.
Police sources said that the accused persons left home at 7 p.m. on December 31 and were roaming on the streets till 2 a.m., and hence it is necessary to confront them with the people they met on that fateful night, including in Murthal.
The police said that CCTV footages from Murthal are yet to be scanned, adding that Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna, two other accused in the case, are still on the run.
Meanwhile, the police on Thursday added Section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to the FIR registered in the case.
The police said that the accused tried to destroy evidence, hence Section 201 has been added to the FIR.
Initially, the FIR was registered under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence) and 279 (rash driving) of the IPC. Later, following protest by the victim’s family members, the police had added IPC Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) to the FIR.
In another development on Thursday, a local court extended the police custody of the five accused persons by four more days.
The accused have been identified as Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mitthu and Manoj Mittal. Amit (25) works with SBI Cards in Uttam Nagar, Krishan (27) works at the Spanish Culture Centre, Mithun (26) is a hairdresser at Naraina, while Manoj Mittal (27) is a ration dealer in Sultanpuri, who is also a local BJP leader.
