Riot victim dies in a relief camp
Muzaffarnagar: A 48-year-old Muzaffarnagar riot victim has died in a relief camp at Ambeta village in the Shamli district, an official here said. Rozuddin died due to tuberculosis on Wednesday, Tehsildar of Kairana area Thakur Prasad said. While Gulfam, the organiser of the relief camp, alleged that he died due to the prevailing cold wave conditions, adding around 300 riot victims are living in the camp. In another relief camp in Malakpur area of the Shamli district, a five-year-old child was bitten by a dog, relief organiser Gulshad said, adding around 33 children are living in the camp with their families. More than 60 persons were killed and over 40,000 displaced in communal violence that had broken out in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in September this year. (PTI)
Gold biscuit worth Rs 30 lakh seized
Kochi: A one-kilogramme gold biscuit valued at approximately Rs 30 lakh was on Thursday seized by Customs Air Intelligence Unit from a passenger who arrived here from Dubai. The passenger, Abdul Kareem, reached here by a flight early in the morning. The gold biscuit was found cut into two pieces and cleverly concealed inside specially made cavities of a pair of sandals worn by the passenger, who had left for Dubai from India on December 10 on his first visit abroad, airport sources said. To qualify to import one kg of gold, a passenger has to stay abroad for more than six months and the duty amount has to be paid in convertible foreign exchange. This is the first gold seizure in this month while the gold imported through the legitimate channel by payment of duty from Dec 1-Dec 18 was 129.64 kg. This is the highest import of legitimate gold for a month and the duty amount collected was approximately Rs 4 crore, the sources said. The seizure was effected by a team of officers under the overall supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Customs (Air Intelligence Unit) S A S Navaz and Assistant Commissioner Sanjay Kumar. (PTI)
Guj gives 4 Asiatic lions to Lucknow Zoo under exchange prog
Vadodara (Guj): Two pairs of Asiatic lions were on Thursday shifted to Uttar Pradesh from the Sakkarbag Zoo in Gujarat as part of the animal exchange programme between the zoos. The four lions (two males, two females) were handed over to a 10-member forest team from UP which arrived in the Junagadh zoo, V J Rana Superintendent at Sakkarbag told PTI. Both pairs will be housed in the Lucknow Zoo for the next few days before they are shifted to the breeding centre at the upcoming Lion Safari Park in Etawah early next year, he said. With this new pair, UP has become the abode to three pairs of Asiatic lions. It had procured two pairs of Asiatic lions from Hyderabad and Rajkot zoos in the past. While a pair is kept in the Lucknow Zoo and the other is housed in the Kanpur Zoo. Meanwhile, the work at Etawah Lion Safari has reached its final stages of completion, Rana said quoting Lion Safari Director Gurmeet Singh. (PTI)
Artefacts found during excavation
Midnapore (WB): A gold locket and a mixed metal coin belonging to the 5th-6th century AD were found during excavations at Dantan area of West Midnapur district, police said on Thursday. The artefacts were found Wednesday morning at Mogolmari village, the site of an ancient Buddhist vihara during excavations by the state archaeology department. The locket had little designs on it, while the coin has inscriptions in Brahmi script and the figure of a warrior on one side and that of a goddess, probably Goddess Lakshmi, on another. The artefacts have been sent to Kolkata for further studies, police said. Excavations were launched in the area about a decade ago at the behest of the archaeology department of Calcutta University and remains of a Buddhist vihara belonging to the 5th century AD had been found. The present excavations are continuation of the work. Two small Buddha images belonging to the 5th-6th century AD were found from the site recently. The vihara is believed to be the one mentioned by Chinese travellers Fa Hien and Huen Tsang in their writings. Fa Hien had visited the country during the reign of Gupta period Emperor Chandragupta Vikramaditya and stayed in Tamralipta, several kilometres away from Mogolmari. Dantan fell on the way to the ancient sea port of Tamralipta. (PTI)
Man acquitted of rape charge after child DNA turned negative
New Delhi: A man facing trial for repeatedly raping a minor girl, who became pregnant and gave birth to a child, has been acquitted by a Delhi court after DNA test conducted on the baby turned out to be negative. Giving clean chit to the accused, the court said the girl may be engaged with “somebody else”. “In the instant case, I find it difficult to ignore the DNA report, which totally exculpates the accused. The report throws in the probability that prosecutrix (girl) was having sexual intercourse with somebody else and it is that person, who impregnated her and she has, for reasons better known to her, concealed these facts from her mother as well as from this court. “The DNA report creates a big dent in prosecution case and makes it highly improbable and untrustworthy. I find that the prosecution has failed to produce any clinching evidence against the accused,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said. The man, a carpenter by profession, was arrested by the police in July 2012 on the complaint lodged by girl’s mother, who had alleged that while she was away for her job, he used to visit her house and raped her 16-year-old daughter. “The accused had sexual intercourse with the girl against her will, whenever he found her alone and threatened her that if she disclosed the incident to anybody, he would kill all her family members. “After certain period of time, the girl felt pain in her abdomen and her mother took her to the nearby doctor who told her that she is pregnant,” the police had said. The police also said that the man has fathered the child to whom the girl gave birth in October 2012. However, the man had claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case during the trial. (PTI)
44 youths escape from juvenile home
Meerut: As many as 44 inmates of a juvenile home in Surajkund area in Meerut escaped, out of which 26 have been arrested, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred when the inmates scaled the wall of a bathroom and escaped through a window, Civil Lines circle officer Vikas Tripathi said. 26 out of the 44 were arrested by the police with the help of security personnel at the home while 18 others are still absconding, and efforts are on to nab them, he said. There are in total 175 youth in the juvenile home, Tripathi said. Last evening, three inmates, held for involvement in several cases of murder, kidnapping and robbery, reportedly escaped from the juvenile home after beating up a Home Guard. More than 50 youths have escaped from the juvenile homes here in past one year. (PTI)