BSF jawan arrested for sharing info with Pakistani agent
Ferozepur: A BSF jawan was arrested for allegedly sharing secret information such as photographs of border fencing and roads with a Pakistani agent, police said on Sunday. The accused, Sheikh Riazuddin, was under the scanner of the Border Security Force (BSF) intelligence wing for his suspicious activities for the last few months, they said. He is a resident of Renpura village in Maharashtra’s Latur district and was posted with the BSF’s 29th Battalion in the Ferozepur Sector in Punjab. Two mobile-phones and seven SIM cards were seized from him, police said. Riazuddin allegedly shared photographs of fencing and border roads, contact numbers of senior BSF officials and some other secret information with Mirja Faisal, an agent of Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), they said. The accused shared the information from his mobile-phone, police said. A case under relevant sections of the Official Secrets Act and National Security Act was registered against him at the Mamdot police station following a complaint by the deputy commandant of the 29th Battalion, they said. Ranjit Singh, the investigation officer, on Sunday said the jawan will be produced in a court for police remand. (PTI)
Teenaged boy lynched over affair with classmate
Hazaribagh (Jharkhand): A 16-year-old schoolboy was lynched in in Hazaribagh district allegedly by family members a girl of her class with whom he reportedly had an affair, the police said Saturday. Family members of the girl, a student of class 10, did not like the affair and allegedly abducted the boy on Friday. They confined the teenager at a house in Kashiket village under Chouparan police station area and beat him up with lathis, police said. The boy, Sumit Kumar, lived in village Kormi in neighbouring Chatra district but studied in a school in Chouparan. He was abducted while going home, Chouparan police station officer-in-charge Sudama Das said. On getting the information, police rescued Sumit from Kashiket and took him to the Hazaribagh Sadar Hospital. He was later referred to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi and he succumbed there Saturday, Chouparan police station officer-in-charge Sudama Das said. Police arrested the girl’s brother and two of her women relatives in this connection. The police officer said raids were on to nab others including the girl’s father. (PTI)
Bomb scare disrupts train services in Kolkata
Kolkata: A suspicious object, mistaken for bomb, was detected near the railway track between Sealdah and Park Circus stations on Sunday morning that led to disruption of train services for nearly an hour, an Eastern Railway spokesman said. After examination, it was found to be a hoax, the official added. The suspicious material was removed by RPF and GRP personnel. Following security clearance, train services were resumed on the route, he said. “The material was examined and was found not to be an explosive,” Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said. Train services to various destinations in the Sealdah South Section were disrupted from 10.40 am to 11.30 am owing to the incident. Consequently, at least 20 EMU locals were delayed by about half an hour, on an average. The “bomb-like” substance was detected by an on-duty keyman of Eastern Railway near the down line between the terminal station Sealdah and Park Circus, the official said. (PTI)
31 deer die in TN park due to ‘high intake’ of toxic leaves
Tiruchirappalli (TN): As many as 31 spotted deer have died at a park near here in the past few days due to indigestion caused by excessive intake of leaves containing toxic amino acid, a Forest Department official said. The deer died of excessive consumption of subabul tree leaves, which are rich in protein and have mimusin, a toxic amino acid, since November 1. Too much intake of the leaves had resulted in digestion problems leading to the death of the animals, the official said Sunday. While 17 deer died on November 1, eight perished the next day. Another six died on Saturday. Twenty-five of them were female and some were also pregnant, the official said. There were about 180 deer in the park which were taken care of by their keepers. Officials were now keeping an eye on the rest. Postmortem of a couple of deer revealed the cause of the deaths, following which the keepers have been asked not to feed subabul leaves to the remaining, the official said. (PTI)
Maneka lashes out at Maha govt over killing of tigress Avni
New Delhi: Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over the “ghastly murder” of man-eating tigress Avni, calling it a “straight case of crime”. Tigress Avni, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years, was killed in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal on Friday as part of an operation. Avni is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old. She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali, at compartment no 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station. Reacting to the killing of Avni, Gandhi in a series of tweets lashed out at the Maharashtra government for giving the orders to kill her despite opposition from several stakeholders. “I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal,” she said in a tweet. “It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing,” she said in another tweet. She said she is going to take up the matter “very strongly” with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. (PTI)