Senior IAS officer arrested in Srinagar
Srinagar: A senior IAS officer was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) Monday for suspected corruption over a land lease at the famous Gulmarg ski resort. Basheer Ahmad Khan of the Indian Administrative Service, who was posted as district magistrate of Kishtwar, was arrested by the SVO police station in Srinagar. He was produced before the court of the special anti-corruption judge, and was charge sheeted for alleged involvement in what is being called the Gulmarg land lease scam. “Khan was arrested by the SVO and taken to the court of the special judge (anti-corruption) in Srinagar, where the SVO produced the charge sheet against the IAS officer. “The court granted bail to Khan and he was allowed to go back to report for duties. Earlier, the union department of personnel and training (DOPT) had communicated to the SVO the mandatory sanction to prosecute the IAS officer,” sources in the Jammu and Kashmir anti-graft body told IANS, not wishing to be identified. The sources also said Khan had been called to Srinagar by the SVO and he cooperated with the sleuths of the anti-graft body. (IANS)
Explosion in UP cracker unit, three killed
Lucknow: At least three people were killed and four others injured in an explosion at a fire cracker unit in Uttar Pradesh late Sunday, police on Monday said. The incident occurred at Kanoon Goyan locality in Hapur, 435 km from here, in a unit where fire crackers were being manufactured for the upcoming Diwali festival. The roof of the house where the fire cracker unit was operating collapsed following the explosion trapping five people under the debris. Police named the house owner as Salim and identified those killed as his wife Raisa, son Faisal (20) and daughter Bano. Police said the injured have been taken to Meerut Medical College and Hospital. The bodies of those killed in the incident were sent for post-mortem. Police said the cracker unit was illegal. A similar incident took place in Unnao, near the state capital, last week in which eight people were killed. (IANS)
US student molested in Lucknow, three held
Lucknow: Three youth have been arrested for molesting an American student who had to jump off a moving auto rickshaw to save herself, police said. The student had boarded a tempo in Tuliaganj late on Saturday. After all the passengers de-boarded the vehicle at different places, the tempo driver, along with his two friends molested the girl. The US national, who lodged a complaint with the police Sunday said, the trio molested her for over 20 minutes and as she tried to raise an alarm they raised the volume of the music in the vehicle. She also noted the number of the tempo and conveyed it to the police. The police was reluctant to lodge a case and instead told the victim that they will “help her”. She, however, said she would not settle for anything less that a formal complaint to be registered. Following this, the police lodged a complaint and arrested tempo driver Veeru and his friends Rajan and Ayush. The girl is a US citizen and studies at an institute on Gokhaley Marg and lives in a rented flat at Indiranagar. The victim also told the police that she had to jump off the moving vehicle when it slowed down near Qaiserbagh in order to save herself from the trio. (IANS)
Man killed by hitmen he hired to kill sister
Bhubaneswar: A man was allegedly killed in a Odisha town by four hitmen he had hired to kill his sister, police said on Monday. The crime took place at Angul, 160 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar, Sep 7 but came to light after police arrested three accused on Sunday. Samar Das, 30, who runs an auto repairing shop in the town hired four alleged paid killers Jayanta Dehury, Duryodhan Nayak, Narottam Nayak and Pratap Sahu to kill his sister Namita because she allegedly brought shame to the family by marrying her own elder brother Abhimanyu, 41, in recent past. Samar had agreed to pay an amount of Rs.3 lakh to the killers after execution of the crime. The hit men attempted to execute the crime number of times but could not succeed, inspector-in-charge Angul police station S.N. Muduli told IANS. They later changed their plan and asked Samar to come with the money to a nearby railway track saying they killed his sister as per the deal. When Samar came with about one-and-half lakh rupees, the accused snatched the money and hacked him to death. “Efforts were on to nab Pratap Sahu, the fourth accused in the murder”, said the police officer. (IANS)