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Crime

Delhi court reserves order on Sharjeel Imam’s bail plea in sedition case

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A Delhi court on Monday reserved the order on the interim bail plea moved by Sharjeel Imam, in connection with a sedition case linked to the alleged inflammatory speeches delivered by him.

The Karkardooma court in the city will pronounce the order in the plea on June 10.

Imam, who has been in judicial custody since January 28, 2020, was seeking relief in the sedition case came following the historic Supreme Court verdict that put on hold the colonial-era penal provision of sedition (Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code).

As per the case, the alleged inflammatory speeches were made in Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019, and in Aligarh Muslim University on January 16, 2020.

Earlier, the Additional Sessions Judge had sought the response of the Delhi Police on the bail plea on the sedition case slapped against the former JNU scholar.

In his fresh bail application, Imam had said that since the top court has put sedition in abeyance, his case has improved for the grant of bail.

“The appellant has been incarcerated for nearly 28 months since January 28, 2020 whereas the maximum punishment for the offences — not including 124-A IPC– are punishable up to a maximum of 7 years of imprisonment,” his plea read.

JNU scholars and activists Imam and Umar Khalid are among the nearly a dozen people involved in the alleged larger conspiracy case linked with the 2020 Delhi riots, as per the Delhi Police. Imam and Khalid are facing charges in connection with the inflammatory speeches which are allegedly fuelled the violence, as per the police.

The riots broke out in the national capital in February 2020 as clashes between the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and pro-CAA protesters took a violent turn. The mayhem, which coincided with the then US President Donald Trump’s maiden trip to India, saw more than 50 people lose their lives while over 700 were injured.

Bollywood

Saif Ali Khan case: Mumbai Police find clues from crime scene

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Mumbai, Jan 22: The Mumbai Police have recovered a piece of cloth from actor Safi Ali Khan’s apartment which belongs to accused Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad, the Bangladeshi national arrested in the attack case.

Sources said the Bandra police recovered cloth from Khan’s house, which the accused used to cover his face. The cloth fell from his face in Saif’s son Jahangir’s room during the scuffle.

The cloth can be seen in the CCTV footage when Shehzad is climbing up the stairs before committing the crime. The police have sent the cloth and hair samples for DNA testing to the forensic department.

Earlier, the officials said that Shehzad had entered the actor’s building, Satguru Sharan, in the Bandra area by scaling its compound wall and found the security guards sleeping.

Sources said that both the security guards in the building were sleeping when the attacker entered it by crossing over the boundary wall.

The sources further said that as Shehzad found both the security guards sleeping, he entered the building from the main entrance where no CCTV camera exists. The accused removed his shoes and kept them in his bag to avoid making any noise. He also switched off his phone.

The police on Tuesday recreated the crime scene with the accused at the building. Police took the accused wherever he went after fleeing from Saif Ali Khan’s house. Shehzad was taken to the garden near the Satguru Sharan building and then to the National College Bus Stop where he was said to have stopped and stayed for a while after committing the crime. During the probe, the police took Shehzad to the Bandra Railway Station from where he had fled. Police are trying to find out how he reached the station.

The police were trying to record the chain of events starting from Shehzad’s entry to the building to his fleeing before being arrested.

Saif Ali Khan was stabbed six times by Shehzad inside his apartment in the early hours of January 16. The actor underwent emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital and was discharged on Tuesday. Three days after the attack, the police arrested the accused from neighbouring Thane city.

A court in Mumbai on Sunday remanded the accused in five-day police custody.

Shehzad, a native of Jhalokathi district in Bangladesh was residing in Mumbai for over five months. He had been working odd jobs and was associated with a housekeeping agency, the police have said.

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Crime

Society cannot have humanitarian approach towards an inhuman: CM Mamata Banerjee on RG Kar verdict

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Kolkata, Jan 21: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday that society cannot have a “humanitarian” approach towards an “inhuman” individual.

She said this while expressing her opinion on the verdict by a special court in Kolkata on the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The special court on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the case, to life imprisonment.

“What is the meaning of ‘life imprisonment’? Often lifers get released on parole. If a convict is alive there is a chance that he might commit the same crime again. If anyone chooses to be ‘inhuman’, how can society be ‘humanitarian’ towards him? That is why we demanded a ‘death sentence’ for the convict in the R.G. Kar tragedy. It is really the rarest of rare crimes,” the Chief Minister said while addressing a state government programme in Malda district.

Her observations came just a couple of hours after the state government approached a division bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging the January 20 verdict of the special court and seeking the death penalty for the convict in the case.

Commenting on the murder of Dulal Sarkar a.k.a. Babla, the Trinamool Congress councillor from ward number 22 of English Bazar Municipality in the same district earlier this month, the Chief Minister gave a strong note of caution that the miscreants and mafias, even if associated with her party, will not be spared at any cost.

The murder is reportedly a fallout of infighting in the ruling party, sources had said.

Referring to the recent tension in neighbouring Bangladesh, having a stretch of international borders with Malda district, the Chief Minister emphasized that in case there are border skirmishes with the Border Security Force (BSF), the people residing in the bordering villages should refrain from going there during the period of tension.

“At the same time, the local people will have to be careful so that no terrorist can take shelter in the district either at any hotel or rent any room at a house in the bordering villages,” the Chief Minister said.

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Crime

RG Kar case: Bengal govt moves Calcutta HC seeking death penalty for convict

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Kolkata, Jan 21: The West Bengal government on Tuesday approached the Calcutta High Court, challenging the special court’s verdict sentencing Sanjay Roy, convicted in the rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, to life imprisonment.

State Advocate General Kishor Datta has approached the division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi seeking a “death penalty” for the convict.

The division bench has admitted the petition from the state government.

After the court pronounced the quantum of sentence, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday evening that the state government would approach the Calcutta High Court challenging the verdict.

She also said the state government will be seeking the “death penalty” for the convict.

“I strongly feel that it is a heinous crime that warrants capital punishment. We will plead for capital punishment of the convict at the High Court now,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

According to her, she was deeply shocked at the judgment of the special court which did not consider the crime as the “rarest of rare”.

“I am convinced that it is indeed a rarest of rare cases which demands capital punishment. We want to insist upon the death penalty in this most sinister and sensitive case,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

“Recently, in the last 3/4 months, we have been able to ensure capital/ maximum punishment for convicts in such crimes. Then, why, in this case, has capital punishment not been awarded?” the Chief Minister’s statement added.

“We demanded the ‘death penalty’ for the convict. I don’t know how….Had the case been in our hands (read state police or Kolkata Police), the death sentence would have been pronounced much earlier,” the Chief Minister said.

While pronouncing the quantum of sentence, special court judge Anirban Das said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s contention that Roy’s offence in the matter was “the rarest and rare crimes” was not tenable.

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