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Farooq Abdullah writes to Prez seeking judicial probe in Hyderpora encounter

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Former chief minister and Lok Sabha member Dr Farooq Abdullah has written to the President of India seeking a time-bound judicial probe into the Hyderpora encounter.

Abdullah, who is also the head of the People’s alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), has asked President Ram Nath Kovind to order a time-bound judicial probe into the incident in which four persons, including a foreign militant, his local associate and two businessmen were killed.

In his letter Abdullah said, “The tragic incident that took place at Hyderpora area of Srinagar on Monday evening has evoked enormous public anger.

“In this unfortunate incident three civilians got killed in suspicious circumstances. The incident calls for a time-bound judicial probe so that true facts are unraveled and brought in the public domain.

“Needless to state that such unfortunate incidents widen the gulf between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India and, therefore, are to be avoided at any cost.

“We would remind Your Excellency that the administration of Jammu and Kashmir is being run in the name of Your Excellency by the Lt. Governor acting as an agent and, therefore, an onerous responsibility is placed on Your Excellency to ensure that the rule of law prevails and the involved erring officials are brought to book and punished under law.”

After a public outrage over the encounter, authorities on Thursday night handed over the bodies of two civilians, Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul, who were killed in the Hyderpora encounter on Monday evening, to their families for the last rites.

Crime

Palghar Crime: MBVV Police Arrest 2 Bhiwandi Men For Sextortion Of Teen Girl Via Instagram Video Call

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Palghar, Maharashtra: The Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar (MBVV) Crime Branch has arrested two men from Bhiwandi for allegedly blackmailing an 18-year-old girl after recording her obscene video during a video call. The accused had extorted money from the victim and threatened to make the video viral.

According to police, the victim received a friend request on Instagram in August 2025 from a man claiming to be from Delhi and currently doing business in London. The two began chatting on WhatsApp soon after. On the night of September 6, 2025, the accused allegedly coerced the girl to undress during a video call and recorded the act.

The next day, he called her again—this time posing as an officer from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)—and threatened to leak the video online unless she paid ₹18,000. The victim, unable to arrange the full amount, transferred part of the money to a bank account provided by the accused.

Despite this, the harassment continued, with the accused calling from different numbers, demanding more money, and even sending the obscene video to her father and brother to increase pressure.

A case was registered at Naya Nagar Police Station under Sections 75(1), 77, 78(1)(ii) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 66(E) and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act.

During investigation, the Crime Branch Unit 1, Kashimira, launched a parallel probe. Technical analysis and inputs from informants revealed that the extorted money had been received in the account of Mohammad Shadab Ansari, a resident of Bhiwandi, who later transferred it to another Bhiwandi resident, Mohammad Taha Ansari.

Upon interrogation, Taha Ansari admitted to converting part of the ransom into USDT cryptocurrency and sending it to a foreign-based contact identified as Waqas Khan. Both accused were handed over to the Nayanagar Police for further legal action.

Police have urged citizens, especially young social media users, to be cautious while interacting with strangers online and to immediately report any incidents of sextortion or cyber blackmail to www.cybercrime.gov.in or the nearest police station.

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Crime

Delhi HC imposes Rs 20K cost on Centre for concealing facts in Sameer Wankhede promotion case

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New Delhi, Oct 17: The Delhi High Court on Friday imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on the Union government for concealing facts in its review petition challenging a previous ruling that upheld the promotion of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and former NCB officer Sameer Dnyandev Wankhede.

Dismissing the Centre’s review plea, a Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain deprecated the conduct of the government and said, “We expect that the petitioner as a State would disclose all facts truthfully before filing the petition. For this, we dismiss the present review petition with a cost of Rs 20,000.”

The matter arose from a direction issued by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in December 2024, asking the Union government to open the sealed cover containing Wankhede’s promotion details. The CAT had ruled that if the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recommended his name, he should be promoted to the post of Additional Commissioner with effect from January 2021.

The Delhi High Court upheld the CAT’s order on August 28, after which the government filed a review petition claiming that departmental proceedings had been initiated against Wankhede between the reservation of judgment on July 29 and its pronouncement on August 28.

In its decision, the Justice Chawla-led Bench noted that the Centre had failed to disclose an order passed by the CAT in August 2025, which stayed the departmental proceedings against Wankhede. The Delhi High Court further observed that the CAT’s order had been issued prior to the filing of the review petition, yet the Union government chose not to bring it on record.

Wankhede came into public attention for his role in the 2021 Cordelia Cruise drug case, which also allegedly involved actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan.

Wankhede was later accused of misconduct and faced allegations of possessing a forged caste certificate. The Delhi High Court has now ordered the Centre to implement the CAT’s order and grant promotion to Wankhede, if recommended by the UPSC, within four weeks.

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Crime

Saradha scam: SC rejects CBI plea challenging anticipatory bail granted to Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar

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New Delhi, Oct 17: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the CBI challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order that had granted anticipatory bail to West Bengal DGP and former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran directed that the contempt of court case—regarding allegations that the state police were interfering with the CBI’s investigation in the Saradha scam—be listed after eight weeks.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court had directed the senior IPS official to respond to the CBI’s appeal challenging the anticipatory bail granted to him. Since then, the petition has remained pending before the apex court. Before this, the Calcutta High Court had granted anticipatory bail to Kumar in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam, observing that custodial interrogation was “not justified” in the given circumstances.

A Bench of Justices Sahidullah Munshi and Subhasis Dasgupta noted that Kumar, who as Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police headed the SIT before the investigation was handed over to the CBI, had already appeared before the Central agency for questioning on multiple occasions.

Rejecting the CBI’s plea for custodial interrogation on the ground of alleged discrepancies in seizure timings and tampering of CDRs, the Calcutta HC held: “We, however, do not justify custodial interrogation merely on this score… in the absence of some other convincing materials. According to our considered view, such discrepancy could be appropriately decided at the time of trial.”

It observed that despite allegations of non-cooperation, Kumar had “consciously offered himself to be interrogated in the interest of ongoing investigation” and there was no “clinching material” necessitating custody. “This is not an appropriate case, when custodial interrogation would be justified,” the Calcutta HC concluded, while granting him anticipatory bail.

The case is linked to an unprecedented confrontation between the Central and West Bengal governments in January 2019, when a CBI team reached Rajeev Kumar’s official residence to question him. However, when local police detained the CBI officers, the team was forced to retreat, prompting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to launch a sit-in protest in defence of Kumar.

Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Biswajit Deb, assisted by advocates Anando Mukherjee and Shwetank Singh, represented Rajeev Kumar before the apex court.

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