IAF engineer held for amassing disproportionate assets
Jamnagar:An IAF engineer was arrested here on Thursday after the CBI raided his residence and found cash and other assets allegedly disproportionate to his income. The CBI team conducted a raid at the residence of the junior engineer, working in Indian Air Force’s Military Engineer Services, in Air Force colony here and found Rs 8 lakh cash and jewellery worth Rs 2.45 lakh, a probing agency official said. The CBI team subsequently arrested him, he said. According to preliminary investigation, the engineer has accumulated assets disproportionate to his income, he said. The CBI will probe how he acquired these assets, he said. Five other persons were also questioned by the probing agency in this connection, he said. The engineer will be taken to the CBI’s Gandhinagar headquarters for further legal process in the case, the official added. (PTI)
Bengal probing smuggling of animals
Kolkata:The smuggling of endangered animals via north Bengal has increased recently and a probe has been launched into it, an official of West Bengal’s forest department said Thursday. “We have received unconfirmed reports that gangs have become active. They allegedly have links in northeast states of India and neighbouring countries like China, Nepal etc. We are investigating it,” Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, North, Vipan Kumar Sood told IANS Thursday. The city of Siliguri in north Bengal is the transit point for the neighbouring countries and is important to the smugglers, said Sood. “We have strengthened our intelligence network,” he said. Three people were arrested Tuesday and two Red Sand Boa snakes seized from them in the state’s Jalpaiguri district. Considered to be a lucky mascot and rumoured to carry Iridium in its scales, the snakes are in huge demand in the black market. Baikunthapur Divisional Forest Officer Dharmdeo Rai said the trio was nabbed from near the national highway 31 and were booked under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. (IANS)
Eight persons booked for demanding dowry in Faridabad
Faridabad: Eight persons have been booked in two separate incidents of harassment over dowry, police said on Thursday. In first incident, Baselva colony resident Geeta who got married to one Naresh Kumar in February this year, has alleged that her husband and in-laws have threatened to kill her if not given a car and two lakh rupees cash as dowry. Seekri village resident Annu, who got married to Palwal resident Ravi in April this year has also accused her in-laws and husband of making similar demands. Meanwhile, a Dayawati colony resident here has complained that his 15-year-old daughter has allegedly been abducted by their neighbour Natthu, police said. FIRs have been registered in all the three cases and investigation is underway, they said. (PTI)
Three killed after falling off a damaged bridge
Rae Bareli: Three youths were killed after the bike they were riding skidded off a damaged portion of a bridge in Kaithan ka Purva village here, police said on Thursday. The bodies of Niraj Dwivedi (32), Shivam (18) and Arvind Shukla (28) were found by passers-by this morning, circle officer Satyapal Singh said. The incident happened when they were returning home from work on a motorcycle last night. The three died on the spot after their vehicle fell from a damaged portion of the overpass on Parshedeypur road, The bodies have been sent for post mortem examination, Singh said adding that the investigation is in progress. All the victims belonged to Fatehpur district and were employed in the construction works at the district hospital. (PTI)
Fishermen hold token strike
Chennai:Protesting the death sentence awarded to five members of their ilk by a Sri Lankan court for drug trafficking, about 30 lakh fishermen in Tamil Nadu on Thursday went on a one-day strike, urging Centre to put pressure on Colombo for their release. Fishermen stayed off the sea in 13 coastal districts of the state including Nagapattinam, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari and Ramanathapuram among others, fishermen association representatives claimed. The Sri Lankan court’s decision had come as a ‘shock’ and on Thursday’s protest was a ‘token strike,’ they said and warned of intensifying their protests if their comrades languishing in prison in the island nation were not released. They claimed the five fishermen hailing from Ramanathapuram were innocent and that they were ‘framed.’ Protesting fishermen demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘pressured’ Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the release of the five persons from Tamil Nadu.(PTI)