Man jailed for failing to return money mistakenly transferred to his account
Singapore, Oct 14: A 47-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to nine weeks’ jail by a Singapore court after he failed to return SGD 25,000 (Rs 16 lakh approximately) mistakenly transferred to his bank account, despite knowing the money did not belong to him.
On October 14, Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan pleaded guilty to misappropriating the money and told the court that he had used the money to pay off his debts and remitted some of it to his family in India.
Periyasamy worked for a plumbing and engineering firm from 2021 to 2022.
His legal woes started on April 6, 2023, when an administrator at the firm transferred the SGD 25,000 to his bank account, which she had thought was the company’s account.
Court documents referred to her (unnamed) as the complainant in the case.
State Prosecuting Officer (SPO) Lim Yeow Leong told the court the woman had taken a personal loan from the company and wanted to pay it off.
“After making the erroneous transfer, the complainant was informed by (a director at the firm) on the same day that the account did not belong to the company, and the company did not receive the cash,” The Straits Times quoted the SPO as saying.
The woman then told Periyasamy’s bank about the erroneous transfer and sought its help to recover the money. On April 10, 2023, the bank sent a letter addressed to him, stating that the woman had made a request for the cash to be returned.
But the letter was sent to the company instead as it was identified as Periyasamy’s last known address in the bank’s records.
On May 9 that year, it informed her by another letter that her request for the cash to be returned was unsuccessful.
She then lodged a police report on May 23.
Well-preserved Viking Age skeletons unearthed
Aasum, Oct 14: In a village in central Denmark, archeologists made a landmark discovery that could hold important clues to the Viking era: a burial ground, containing some 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons.
“This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved,” said archeologist Michael Borre Lundø, who led the six-month dig. “Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons.” The skeletons were preserved thanks to favourable soil chemistry, particularly chalk and high water levels, experts from Museum Odense said. The site was discovered last year during a routine survey, ahead of power line renovation work on the outskirts of the village of Aasum, 5 kilometres, northeast of Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city.
Experts hope to conduct DNA analyses and possibly reconstruct detailed life histories, as well as looking into social patterns in Viking Age, such as kinship, migration patterns and more.
“This opens a whole new toolbox for scientific discovery,” said Borre Lundø as he stood on the muddy, wind-swept excavation site. “Hopefully we can make a DNA analysis on all the skeletons and see if they are related to each other and even where they come from.” During the Viking Age, considered to run from 793 to 1066 A.D., Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raids, colonizing, conquering and trading throughout Europe, even reaching North America.
The Vikings unearthed at Aasum likely weren’t warriors. Borre Lundø believes the site was probably a “standard settlement,” perhaps a farming community, located 5 kilometers from a ring fortress in what’s now central Odense. (AP)
Cops demolish minarets of two 70-yr-old Ahmadi places of worship
Lahore, Oct 14: Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province have demolished the minarets of two 70-year-old Ahmadi places of worship, allegedly under pressure from religious extremists, the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said on Monday.
The demolitions happened in Khanewal and Gujranwala, located approximately 350 km and 80 km from Lahore respectively.
“In both Khanewal and Gujranwala, the police, acting under pressure from religious extremists, demolished the minarets of Ahmadi places of worship and covered the sacred inscriptions with cement,” JAP senior official Amir Mahmood told PTI. He added that both the worship places were built in the early 1950s.
Mahmood highlighted that Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh of the Lahore High Court, in a ruling on August 31, 2023, had clearly stated that damaging Ahmadi places of worship constructed before 1984 is illegal. The court explicitly ruled that the law enacted in 1984 does not apply to such places of worship, and any act of demolition or damage would be unlawful.
“We presented the Lahore High Court’s order to the police, but it was ignored. The police claimed they were under immense pressure from religious elements,” Mahmood said, emphasising the blatant violation of the court’s order.
The JAP condemned the police’s actions as illegal and an abuse of power. “Ahmadis, who are loyal citizens, are being discriminated against to appease extremists. (PTI)