UP inspector hired contract killers to shoot Class 8 student
Lucknow: An inspector with Uttar Pradesh police was suspended on Sunday on suspicion of ordering the killing of a Class 8 student in the state capital last month, police said. The case was initially suspected to be one of mistaken identity. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) J. Ravinder Gaur said the inspector is now on the run, but the sharp shooters he had contracted for killing the 14-year-old Maaz have been arrested. Based on telephone surveillance, the two sharp shooters, Ajeet Rai and Rahul Rai, were found and arrested from Digviniya village in Azamgarh, about 270 km from the state capital, early Sunday. The two have confessed that inspector Sanjay Rai had contracted them for killing Maaz, and had paid them Rs.2.5 lakh for the job. Gaur said that Sanjay Rai, posted at the anti-human trafficking cell of the city police, had fallen in love with the cousin of Maaz. The woman Rai had fallen in love with was a trainee with UP police. She had allegedly spurned Rai’s advances. Enraged, Rai sought revenge on the woman’s family. Police said Rai had hoped to implicate a frequent guest at the house of the woman, a man named Akmal, in the killing of the teenaged boy. Akmal was considered the woman’s suitor. (IANS)
Man walks 40 kmwith pregnant wife on shoulder
Kottayam: In an effort to save his pregnant wife and their child, a man walked through forest for about 40 kms in heavy rains carrying the ailing woman on his shoulders to get her to a hospital, but failed to save the baby. The tribal youth, Ayyappan, carrying his seven-month pregnant wife, Sudha set off for the hospital from the Konni forests on Tuesday last by about 6 am in heavy rains. Ayappan walked to Kokkathod, said to be about 40 km from the place he was staying in the forest, and then managed to get a jeep to take his wife to Pathnamthitta district hospital by 6 pm from where she was referred to Kottayam medical college hospital as she had convulsions. “The woman’s life had been saved since she was carried all the way, but the baby could not be saved. Labour was induced for the delivery of the dead foetus,” Dr Kunjamma Roy, Head of the Gynaecology department of the Kottayam Medical college hospital told PTI. The delivery was on Wednesday and the mother is recovering, she said. When the woman was brought to the hospital, she had oedema, high blood pressure and convulsions. Convulsions during pregnancy can affect both mother and child, Dr Roy said. The couple were living in the Konni forests and eked out a living by selling honey and various other products from the forest. As media reports came in about the couple, offers of financial assistance have started pouring in. (PTI)
10 crew members rescued from cargo ship off Maharashtra
Ratnagiri (Maharashtra): Ten crew members were rescued from an Indian cargo ship which drifted and got stuck off the Konkan coast at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, police said on Monday. The brand new cargo carrier, “MV Shri Jayate” reported an engine failure Sunday evening, while voyaging in heavy rain, and drifted to the shore off Ratnagiri. “It had reported an engine failure when it was around five km into high seas. Later, it drifted and is now stuck around two km from the coast in the Arabian Sea. With help from fishermen, we rescued all the crewmen safely,” Suvarna Patki, an official at the Ratnagiri Police Station said. Patki said the new ship was on its way to being delivered to clients in Kolkata. It had begun its journey from Vasai in Thane, and had covered about 250 km at the time the engine failed. There is no report of any environmental hazard because of this incident. Efforts to repair the faulty engines will be taken once the weather improves in the rain-battered Ratnagiri and Konkan region of the state, Patki said. (IANS)
Speeding car kills five women in Patna
Patna: A speeding car crushed five women to death and seriously injured one other person in Bihar’s capital on early Monday, police said. “Five women were crushed to death as a speeding car hit them,” Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said. The incident occurred near Azimchak under Gaurichak police station here. “All the victims were identified as residents of Jehanabad district,” police said. Hundreds of people, angered by the incident, gathered on the Gaya-Masaurih Highway in protest, blocking the road and demanding action against the owner of the car. Witnesses said the two people in the car parked the car at the side of the road and fled. Police have seized the car and begun investigations. (IANS)