Lucknow: A young girl was set ablaze after she was allegedly gang-raped by six men in Etawah, the home town of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, police said Friday. The incident occurred Thursday. The girl, a resident of Jesarmau village in Etawah district, is battling for life at a hospital at Saifai with 90 percent burns. Deputy Inspector General R.K. Chaturvedi told IANS that the girl told police that six men, including her lover Farhan, raped her and set her on fire. “Efforts are on to nab the culprits,” the officer said. Police said the victim and one of her attackers had intended to get married. But matters took an ugly turn as money was demanded as a condition for solemnising the bond. The marriage did not take place, and the families grew hostile, the officer said. To sort things out, the girl apparently called the young man to her house, where he raped her along with five of his friends. The girl’s family alleged that they were being intimidated. (IANS)
Man throws acid on estranged wife and his father-in-law
Moga: A man allegedly threw acid on his wife and her father near the district’s Mehna village, police said on Friday. Mandeep Kaur (21) suffered 70 per cent burns on her face, chest and legs while her father, the 55-year-old Shamsher Singh, received 30 per cent burns when they were attacked on Thursday on way to taking part in a court hearing, police said. A complaint has been registered in the matter against one Harinder Singh (27) of Raseen village in Ludhiana district and eight alleged accomplices. Police, however, are yet to make any arrests in the case. The hearing which the victims were to attend was related to the divorce application Kaur had filed against her husband. The Supreme Court had recently pulled up the Centre and state governments for failing to formulate a policy to prevent acid attacks on women. (PTI)
Nine kids die as boat capsizes
Patna: At least 10 people, including nine children, were killed after an overcrowded boat capsized in a flooded tributary of the Kosi river in Bihar, police said. The tragic incident occurred Thursday night in Alamnagar block of Madhepura district when the victims were returning from a nearby village after attending a function, a district police officer said. According to the state disaster management department officials here, water level in the Kosi river and its tributaries has been rising for the last three days. The Kosi is also known as ‘Sorrow of Bihar’ because of the flooding it causes in the state, particularly in the monsoon season. (IANS)
Two coaches of train derails on Chg-Mah border; no casualties
Raipur: Two AC coaches of a train derailed in a Maoist-infested area on the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border on Friday, but there were no casualties reported, railway officials said. Two AC coaches (B-2 and B-3) of Howrah–Mumbai Mail derailed between Paniyajob and Bortalao local stations under Nagpur Railway Division on Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border, Raipur Railway Division’s PRO Ratan Basak said. However, no casualties were reported in the incident and relief operations have begun, he said. Soon after getting the news of the mishap, which took place around 11.30 AM, senior officials from Raipur and Nagpur divisions have rushed to the spot, he said. According to a senior official of South East Central Railway (comprising three divisions namely Raipur, Bilaspur and Nagpur), naxal involvement in the incident cannot be ruled out as earlier several mishaps were reported in the dense forest pocket of Bortalao. (PTI)
Minor commits suicide in Delhi
New Delhi: A Class 12 student committed suicide Friday morning by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in the servants’ quarters attached to the residence of the Kenyan high commissioner in Vasant Vihar, police said. “No suicide note was recovered from the site,” a police official said. Police have been unable to identify the motive behind the suicide. The student’s identity was not divulged as he was a minor. He had been doing his Class 12 studies through an open school. (IANS)
Two die in Odisha flash flood
Bhubaneswar: Two women were killed while two were swept away and are now missing after a flash flood ravaged Odisha’s Malkangiri district, a minister said here Friday. Revenue and Disaster Management Department Minister Surya Narayan Patro said many places of the state witnessed heavy rains during the last two days and Malkangiri district was worst hit. Four people were swept away by the flood water Thursday in Kudumuluguma area of the district, about 700 km from state capital Bhubaneswar. The bodies of two of them were found by the police Friday, he told IANS. The dead were women and they were aged 45 and 48. At least 100 people were given shelter in a local school after flood water gushed through their homes in the region, he said. (IANS)
Liquor worth Rs 1.5 cr seized
Mathura: Foreign and rare varieties were among liquor worth Rs 1.5 crore seized during checking at Kotban on National Highway-2 here and two persons were arrested in this connection, police said on Friday. Acting on a tip off by an informer, police conducted checking of vehicles at Kotban last evening, where two canters, carrying the liquor in 3,500 boxes, were intercepted and the drivers were arrested, police said. Mukhtar Singh, hailing from Haryana and Sukhadeo alias Bittoo have disclosed during questioning that the liquor was being smuggled from Haryana to Gujarat, they said. (PTI)