12 year old gang raped and now pregnant

Amid threats in Bawana near Delhi, this girl and her stunned family bravely tell us what happened.

A 12 year old gets raped in Bawana, a place on the outskirts of Delhi and her parents discover the only after she gets 4 months pregnant.

3 men gang rape minor girl for 5 months, 1 held

A 20-year-old man was arrested for sexually exploiting a 12-year-old Class 5 girl student at Bawana Industrial Area in outer Delhi, police said on Saturday. Two other persons also joined in exploiting her.

Five months ago, they gang raped her at a factory owned by one of the accused. They continued to force themselves on her.

“We have arrested one of the accused, Deepak Shah, who was labourer at the factory,” said a senior police officer. His friends, Vicky and Lucky, both in their thirties, are still at large.

Lucky was the owner of the factory. The incident came to light on Saturday morning when the minor, a student of a government school at Shahabad Dairy and resident of Bawana Industrial Area, was not feeling well. Her parents took her to hospital, where during treatment doctors found that she was four-month pregnant.

Then the parents heard everything. They went to Shahabad Dairy police station, where the girl told police that she has been sexually exploited for the last five months.

She said a few months ago, she used to go to her father’s tea stall at the industrial area to help him, as her mother was unwell. “During that time, she also used to visit some factories to deliver tea to workers,” said a police officer.

When she went to a factory at C-106 in Sector 5 to give tea, the plant owner, Lucky, along with Deepak Shah and Vicky gang raped her. They threatened her that they would kill her parents if she complained to anyone.

Traumatised, she did not tell anyone and she was exploited repeatedly.

“We have filed a case of rape against the three. Deepak Shah has been nabbed, and we will find the rest soon,” said the officer.

7:34 AM | Posted in 12 year old gets raped in bawana, flash, news, news1 | Read More »

Over 85 killed in Kolkata hospital fire, 6 directors arrested

More than 85 patients in Kolkata's well known AMRI hospital were killed along with three staffers when a blaze started in the basement of the annexe building early Friday and toxic fumes quickly spread to the other floors, trapping hundreds of people. Updates:
Six AMRI directors arrested, hospital licence cancelled

Noted industrialists S.K. Todi and R.S. Goenka and four other directors of the city's AMRI hospital, where a fire broke out claiming 88 lives Friday, were arrested and booked for several non-bailable offences, police said. The hospital's licence was also cancelled, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced.

'Six directors of the AMRI hospital have been arrested today in connection with the fire tragedy. Those arrested include S.K. Todi, R.S. Goenka and Ravi Todi. They have been bookes for several non-bailable offences, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder,' Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Damayanti Sen.

President grieves over Kolkata hospital fire deaths

President Pratibha Patil expressed her grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the fire at AMRI Hospital in Kolkata Friday.

In her message to the governor of West Bengal, Patil said she is saddened to know about the massive fire at AMRI Hospital in which more than 80 people, mostly patients, were killed.

A blaze started in the basement of the annexe building early Friday and toxic fumes quickly spread to the other floors, trapping hundreds of people.

The president also conveyed her condolences to the families of the deceased and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Relatives fight tears, anger at morgue

'I know this is not him,' murmured a young wife each time she removed the white satin covering the face of those killed in Kolkata's AMRI Hospital fire. The woman came out the SSKM hospital morgue with a wry smile, saying 'Maybe he is alive' but her hopes were soon dashed.

An ambulance carrying three more dead bodies halted near the morgue gate and one of the three was that of her husband. She stared blankly at the body before breaking down inconsolably.

The steady flow of bodies continued as ambulances carrying them entered the SSKM hospital one by one and after autopsy and identification, the bodies were handed over to their relatives. Read on

'Don't worry, nothing will happen, they said'

The families of patients and witnesses Friday recounted harrowing tales of a fire at AMRI Hospital that claimed over 90 lives, saying the authorities neither woke up to the danger on time nor allowed locals to help rescue trapped victims.

'We were sleeping. Then we heard someone screaming that there was a fire,' said a woman who was inside the hospital.

Some said the the hospital authorities kept giving false assurances.

'We were told 'don't worry, nothing will happen',' said a man quoting the hospital staff.

No radiation leak at fire-hit Kolkata hospital

Amid fears of radiation hazard from the equipment used in the cancer department at AMRI hospital after a major fire, a team of National Disaster Response Force Friday visited the oncology wing and said later there was no radiation leak.

Wearing gas masks and carrying sophisticated anti-radiation equipment, the NDRF team went to the hospital but said there was no leakage.

'There is no excess radiation and no leakage,' said the team commander Mukesh Kumar Verma.

PM mourns deaths in Kolkata fire, sanctions relief

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday expressed grief at the deaths of 73 people, mostly patients, in a fire in Kolkata's AMRI Hospital.

The prime minister also sanctioned ex-gratia grant of Rs.200,000 each to the families of those killed and Rs.50,000 to each of the injured.

'The prime minister expresses shock and anguish over the loss of lives in the hospital fire in Kolkata. He conveys his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy,' said a statement issued by his office.

Hospital staff abandon patients to fire

Medical staff at an Indian hospital abandoned their patients and fled for safety early Friday as fire and smoke poured through the building, leaving 65 people dead, many from smoke inhalation, government officials said.

As rescuers scrambled to evacuate survivors, police filed a case against the hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata for violating safety procedures and top government officials vowed to hold the hospital accountable for the tragedy.

"It's a very serious offense, and we will take the strongest action," Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the state of West Bengal, said at the scene.

More Kolkata like fires waiting to happen

The fire in the Kolkata hospital that killed at least 60 people was 'absolutely preventable', Neelam Krishnamurthy, who lost two children in the 1997 Delhi Uphaar cinema blaze, said , while blaming the 'lackadaisical' government and judiciary.

'This incident was absolutely preventable. It is very unfortunate that the government departments have once aging failed to function and the common man is suffering,' Krishnamurthy, convenor of the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), said.

'The government and judiciary have a lackadaisical attitude regarding this issue. If something is not done, I am sorry to say but many more similar tragedies will take place,' she added.

Banerjee came to the narrow lane leading to the hospital - co-founded by private firms along with the West Bengal government - around 9.45 a.m., and immediately a stream of people as also mediapersons rushed towards her.Police personnel, at their wits end after having spent hours controlling the mob, which was venting its ire at the hospital authorities, tried to put up a cordon around the chief minister.

But as the surging crowd became uncontrollable, leading to a near stamplede, the lawkeepers wielding the baton, which worsened the situation. Read on

Hospital fire kills at least 73 Kolkata

A fire ripped through a seven-storey hospital in Kolkata before dawn on Friday, killing at least 73 people, most of them patients who were asleep when the blaze started.

Thick smoke engulfed the hospital and firefighters smashed windows to evacuate people down ladders to safety from upper floors. Other patients were rolled out on stretchers.

The tragedy unfolded over many hours as patients were suffocated to death, some trapped in their beds, others dying in their sleep, too infirm to escape the smoke. The lucky few were brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building, only six years old, using ropes and ladders as thousands looked on in horror.

The fire brigade allegedly reached late and were initially ill-equipped - coming without masks with only rickety manual lifts - to deal with the disaster.

While hospital authorities said 70 patients and three staffers had been killed, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had confirmed 61 deaths earlier in the day

9:44 PM | Posted in flash, india, news, news1 | Read More »

Gujarat HC orders CBI to probe Ishrat Jehan encounter case

Ahmedabad, Dec.1 (ANI): The Gujarat High Court announced on Thursday that it would be directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct the probe in the Ishrat Jehanencounter case, as it could not trust the state police to do a fair andcredible investigation.

Last month, the high court had ordered the registration of fresh cases against the accused policemen after rceiving a report on the incident from a Special Investigation Task (SIT) team.

In October this year, a team of forensic experts and investigation officials had reconstructed the shootout in Ahmedabad to look into key details of the killing.

Recreating the scene of the incident on a highway on the outskirts of the city, probe officials even placed a dilapidated vehicle marking the car in which Jahan and her associates were gunned down, in a bid to ascertain whether the shootout was indeed, genuine.

The Crime Branch of Gujarat Police is said to have been involved in the killing of Jehan, an alleged operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, in a fierce shootout in 2004 in Ahmedabad.

According to the police, Jehan and her accomplices were involved in a sinister plot to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

However, widely believed as fake, the shootout sparked a fierce public and political outcry and was unequivocally condemned by academics, civil society activists, journalists and political leaders, who demanded justice for Jehan.

Interestingly, a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad ruled in 2009 that Jehan"s shootout was "fake," pricking holes in the sequence of events provided by the police and renewing demands for a fresh probe into the incident.

Presently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court is handling the case. Former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director R K Raghavan heads the team.

Ishrat Jehan was killed along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar in a shootout on June 15, 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad while they were travelling in a private car. (ANI)

5:50 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »

Mumbai fire guts three shopping plazas, no casualties

Mumbai: Fire Guts Three Shopping Plazas, No Casualties

Mumbai, Nov 26 (IANS): A major fire gutted three popular shopping complexes in south Mumbai early Saturday, the fire brigade said. There were no casualties.

According to a fire brigade official, the fire broke out around 3.30 a.m. in the Sara-Sahara Mall, barely a stone's throw away from Mumbai Police Commissionerate at Crawford Market.
The blaze quickly spread from Sara-Sahara Mall to the adjoining Manish Market and Mohta Market, both reputed for their array of electronic and electrical consumer goods, and situated in a thickly congested area.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
The Sara-Sahara Mall has been in the news for its reported ownership by absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.
Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar told reporters that the fire would be brought "under control soon" and there are no immediate reports of any casualties.
At least 33 fire tenders and 20 water tankers were rushed to the scene and attempted to tackle the blaze in the heart of the commercial area of south Mumbai.
So far, over 350 shops in the three shopping plazas have been reduced to ashes, besides several small shops located nearby, resulting in losses estimated in several crores of rupees.

5:45 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »

Mumbai fire guts three shopping plazas, no casualties

Mumbai: Fire Guts Three Shopping Plazas, No Casualties

Mumbai, Nov 26 (IANS): A major fire gutted three popular shopping complexes in south Mumbai early Saturday, the fire brigade said. There were no casualties.

5:45 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »

Mumbai can't call itself a safe city for women

BLASTS, riots and terror attacks have been unsuccessful in taking the sheen off Maximum City. But a demon lurking within may just be able to do that.

Mumbai was always touted as a "safe city" for women. But with growing cases of eve-teasing and assaults on people who protest this evil, it may soon lose this tag.

Following the murders of two young men for protesting a woman friend being harassed, the city's citizens have initiated several campaigns to make their intolerance for eve-teasing clear. But even as the police are forming squads to nab eve-teasers and opening up helpline numbers, as many as three cases of eve-teasing in the past one week have created a sense of insecurity among the women.

In a fresh incident, the police on Saturday arrested three men from suburban Juhu for allegedly misbehaving with a girl and attacking another who confronted them.

Lakhan Devendra, Tambi Devendra and Shiva Devendra began harassing a girl on Thursday night near an ice cream shop in Juhu. When eyewitness Ajay Hogade intervened, he was thrashed. His sister Rupali too protested the harassment of the other girl. These men then attacked her and bit off a portion of her thumb. The police finally arrested the trio following Rupali’s complaint.

In a similar case, an eve-teaser slashed off the finger of a man in Dombivli who objected to his wife being harassed. Bipin Dalani, 46, was allegedly attacked by Maruti Mane on Thursday after the former protested the harassment of his wife Kavita. Mane is absconding even as the police have registered a complaint against him.

Both these instances have brought back the bitter memory of the brutal murders of Reuben Fernandez and Keenan Santos on October 20. The boys were attacked by group of men in Andheri with choppers after they objected to the men harassing one of their women friends and Keenan’s girlfriend.

Keenan died on the spot, while Reuben succumbed to his injuries a few days later.

The rising incidents of eveteasing have left women feeling insecure. Samantha Pinto, an IT professional, said: "Though Mumbai is safer than many other cities, it can no longer be considered absolutely safe.

Hooligans in crowded trains and railway platforms think they can get away with anything. We need a better police mechanism.” The city youth have formed groups on social networking sites demanding stricter laws and modifications of sections in the Indian Penal Code dealing with harassment of women.

Individual police zones under the city commissionerate have also launched their own actions against miscreants.

DCP Vishwas Nagre Patil of the Western Zone set up a special squad last week to round up people who harass women.

Within four days of its formation, the squad had cornered over 60 people. Maharashtra's minister of state for home Satej Patil has had a text message sent to all mobile users detailing the police numbers and helplines that one can call in cases of eve- teasing. But women think this is not enough.

Ruchika Gupta, a corporate executive, said: “ Is it practical to dial a number when one is in the middle of a crisis? And, we all know how the police respond to such calls. We need better policing on the city’s roads.” But Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik said although the incidents were unfortunate, it did not represent the general state of the city. “ The discussion was triggered after the Amboli attack ( which killed Reuben and Keenan), but I do not think that Mumbai is unsafe for women. We are constantly available whenever there is an emergency and all police numbers are known to the people.” The commissioner said while it was impossible to constitute a special squad with about 30 per cent of the force to take care of the menace, DCPs in some zones had taken steps to curb this menace.

"But I want to assure the women citizens in the city that the police are always there to help and safeguard them in need,” he added.

7:10 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »

Mumbai can't call itself a safe city for women

7:10 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »

15 dead, 34 injured in Delhi fire

New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) At least 15 people were killed and more than 34 injured in a fire at a congregation of eunuchs at a community park in east Delhi Sunday, fire brigade officials said.

However, Delhi Health Minister A.K. Walia, who visited the injured in hospital, put the number of dead at 12, while police said 10 people were killed.

Walia, who visited the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital where most of the injured were taken, announced compensation for the victims but did not specify the amount.

The minister also ordered a thorough probe into the incident. 'The deputy commissioner (revenue) of east Delhi (J.P. Sharma) has been asked to investigate the incident and file his report to the state government at the earliest,' he told reporters.

The first intimation of the fire at the park in Nand Nagri's E2 block, where the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Kinnara Samaj Sarvdharma Mahasammelan started Sunday, was received around 6.50 p.m., a fire brigade official said.

According to officials, the blaze started after a tent caught fire following suspected electrical short-circuit.

As many as 2,000 to 2,500 people were understood to have been present inside the community centre when the tent burst into flames, police said.

The tents erected on the grounds of the community hall were completely gutted.

As the fire spread, people ran helter-skelter searching for a safe area but many got trapped in the fire and lost their lives, police said.

The approach road to the park was narrow, which hampered rescue operations as the big fire tenders could not reach the spot to fight the blaze. However, smaller fire tenders were able to get in and battle the flames.

Meanwhile, the eunuchs themselves, aided by personnel of the National Disaster Response Force, the Delhi government's civil defence, locals and the Nirankari Sevak Samaj, started rescue operations, bringing out the injured and bodies and clearing the debris.

Fire department officials said the organisers had not taken permission from the department.

Ashu, a participant in the event, said eunuchs had started arriving for the event since Saturday evening and were staying at the venue, where a huge marquee had been put up.

Most of the injured were taken to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, which was only a short distance away. Some were also taken to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital.

Hospital authorities fear the toll could go up further because many of the injured had grievous burn injuries.

6:11 AM | Posted in flash, news, news1 | Read More »