Connect with us
Sunday,20-April-2025
Breaking News

Crime

After raids, ED detains lawyer who targeted Devendra Fadnavis

Published

on

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) early on Thursday raided the homes of well-known lawyer Satish Uke and his brother Pradeep Uke at Parvati Nagar. Later, the ED detained Satish Uke and whisked him for questioning.

A team of ED along with a posse of the CRPF and local police, landed at the Uke residence around 5 a.m., and launched the search operations.

Uke is famed for running a campaign against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, and filing at least two election petitions against him.

Earlier, he represented a RTI activist Mohnish Jabalpure who had lodged two complaints with the ED in August-September 2019, demanding a probe against Fadnavis for various alleged actions favouring his wife Amruta, working for the private sector entity, Axis Bank.

Among other things, Jabalpure had accused Fadnavis of allegedly misusing his position as the (then) chief minister to transfer the salary accounts of various government departments from public sector banks to the Axis Bank ostensibly to favour his wife and the Axis Bank.

“Its nearly 3 years now since my complaints, but the ED has not taken any action in the matter, although I have provided all evidence to them,” Jabalpure said.

Prior to that, in 2018, Uke had filed a plea in the Bombay High Court seeking compensation for the family of the CBI Judge B. H. Loya who died in Nagpur on December 1, 2014.

Subsequently, Uke was arrested for certain alleged offences committed over 17 years ago.

Only last week, Uke was engaged as the lawyer of Congress state President Nana Patole in a Rs 500-crore defamation case filed against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in the sensational phone-tapping case.

However, it is not immediately clear for which particular case Uke is being probed by the central agency, though there’s speculation over a property transaction that is reportedly under the ED scanner.

Shiv Sena Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut slammed the ED raids at Uke’s home and said since he is the lawyer of the state Congress chief, “it wouldn’t be surprising if Patole is also raided”.

Raut – who met Uke last week here reiterated how the Centre and BJP are blatantly misusing official machineries especially in Maharashtra, in their attempts to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government with the help of the central probe agencies.

“A strange situation is witnessed in which those who provide information and evidence are being punished while the guilty are getting away scot-freea In my complaint, nobody from the PMO has taken any action despite furnishing evidence against the ED,” Raut told media-persons in New Delhi.

Crime

Accused in air hostess sexual assault case was porn addict: Gurugram Police

Published

on

Gurugram, April 19: Gurugram Police said on Saturday that the accused in the air hostess sexual assault case was a porn addict, an official said.

Gurugram Police Spokesperson Sandeep Kumar said that the accused used to watch porn videos habitually, which was also confirmed from the mobile phone recovered from him.

He said that during police interrogation, it was found that the accused has a B.Sc. (OT) degree from a private institute from the years 2019-2022, and he was an average student in studies.

“For the last five months, he was working as a treatment machine technician in the ICU of the hospital. The accused going to the victim at the time of the incident was confirmed from the CCTV cameras installed in the hospital,” he said.

The Spokesperson said that during interrogation of the accused, it was also found that he had watched porn videos before the incident and even after committing the crime.

“Which is also being confirmed from the search history of the accused’s mobile phone. He was produced before the court on Saturday, from where he was sent to judicial custody for further proceedings,” he said.

Meanwhile, the SIT on Friday nabbed the accused, after analysing at least 800 CCTV cameras installed inside and outside of the hospital, who sexually assaulted the woman when she was on a ventilator.

The accused was identified as Deepak (25), a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The accused had been working as a treatment machine technician in the ICU of the hospital for the past five months and was arrested in the Sadar police station area on Friday.

An official privy to the investigation said that the accused has confessed to his crime in the matter.

“While investigating the incident, eight police teams checked the footage of 800 CCTV cameras installed in the hospital, and around 50 hospital staff, including doctors, were questioned about the incident. Keeping in mind the seriousness of the incident, the police teams investigated from every angle and collected a lot of information related to the incident, as a result of which the police got great success in identifying the accused who committed the crime,” said Arpit Jain, DCP (Headquarters).

On Thursday, Vikas Kumar Arora, Commissioner of Police, Gurugram, had constituted an SIT and ordered the identification and arrest of the accused.

As per the order of the Police Commissioner, an SIT was constituted under the leadership of Arpit Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Gurugram, in which a total of eight different police teams were given special directions and deployed to collect information and evidence related to the incident.

Dr. Sanjay Durani, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, said in a statement that: “We have been informed that the police have identified a suspect who has been taken into custody in connection with the ongoing investigation concerning allegations of sexual assault on a patient. On the basis of information provided to us by the police, we have suspended the suspect employee. As we await the final outcome of the investigation, we will continue to provide full support to the police.”

Continue Reading

Crime

Manipur govt launches verification of papers of arms license holders

Published

on

Imphal, April 19: The Manipur government has launched a drive to verify the licensed arms and asked all the district administrations to examine the papers of the arms license holders and arms dealers, officials said on Saturday.

A senior official said that the Commissioner (Home) has, in an urgent circular, asked the Deputy Commissioners of all 16 districts to take steps to verify the papers of arms license holders and arms dealers in their respective districts.

Accordingly, all the Deputy Commissioners directed the arms license holders and arms dealers to submit their papers in their nearest or respective police stations on or before April 25.

“Non-compliance with the orders may lead to penalisation and cancellation of arms license,” the official said, referring to the circular of the Commissioner (Home). Till March 6, around 1,000 looted and illegally held weapons, including many sophisticated arms, and a huge cache of ammunition, have been returned to the security forces since Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla appealed for the first time on February 20.

The initiative to recover the looted and illegally held arms began on May 31, 2023, when former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh made an appeal to all concerned to surrender the firearms looted from security forces and police armouries.

Officials said that before Singh’s resignation as Chief Minister on February 9, a total of 3,422 firearms had been voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and police stations in different districts.

Various official reports, political parties claimed that during the ethnic riots, which broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, over 6,020 varied types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and police outposts by the mobs, attackers and militants.

Continue Reading

Crime

Put under house arrest again, says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Published

on

Srinagar, April 18: Senior religious and Huriyat Conference (HC) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said on Friday that authorities have placed him under house arrest, thereby denying him the right to offer congregational prayers during the day.

Mirwaiz Farooq said on X, “Every Friday I am put under arbitrary house arrest ! Putting pressure on me not to speak up, the ban also aims to weaken the centrality of Muslim institutions of the valley-the Jama Masjid, office of the Mirwaiz, and cause collective grief to Muslims and all those who oppose this authoritarian and sectarian outlook. My house detention case is still pending in court, where I am seeking relief from the Hon’ble High Court, but In such times patience remains our only strength.”

Mirwaiz traditionally delivers the Friday sermon at the Jamia Masjid in the Nowhatta area of old Srinagar city. He also heads the Anjuman-e-Nusratul Islam, a religious organisation that runs some educational institutions in Kashmir, including the Islamia High School in Rajouri Kadal area of Srinagar.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last month declared the Mirwaiz-headed Awami Action Committee (ACC) a banned organisation for five years. The ACC was formed in 1963 during the Holy Relic agitation by Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq. After the elder Mirwaiz was assassinated in 1990 by the terrorists, the ACC came to be headed by his son, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The MHA order said that the ACC has been encouraging youth to violence and is acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the state.

Mirwaiz Farooq, who is the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, has witnessed the desertion of several affiliates. As many as 12 Hurriyat-linked organisations have broken off from secessionism, reposing trust in the Constitution of India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that “separatism has become history in Kashmir”, and the unifying policies of the Modi government have eliminated separatism in J&K. He has also said this is a victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’.

Continue Reading

Trending