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I foiled attempts to burn Andhra: Suspended IPS officer

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A day after he was suspended by the Andhra Pradesh government for the second time in less than two-and-a-half years, senior IPS officer A.B. Venkateswara Rao said on Wednesday that some individuals and forces were targeting him.

He told the mediapersons that some people are angry with him because as the then intelligence chief, he had foiled attempts to burn the state.

“Using Kodi Katti case as an excuse, they wanted to burn the state. Within a few hours, I effectively countered this. That’s why some people are angry with me,” he said without naming anyone.

‘Kodi Katti’ case refers to the knife attack on Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy by a youth at Visakhapatnam Airport in 2018.

Reddy, who was then the leader of opposition, sustained minor injury. The attacker used ‘kodi katti’ or a small knife which is used during cockfight.

A month after Rao’s reinstatement following the Supreme Court order, the state government on Tuesday suspended him on charges of trying to influence witnesses pertaining to the criminal case against him.

Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma issued an order placing the former Intelligence chief under suspension under sub-rule (3) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969

The Indian Police Service (IPS) officer said he would challenge his suspension in a court of law and exuded confidence that it will not stand legal scrutiny. He argued that an officer can’t be suspended twice on the same issue.

Rao claimed that there was no chargesheet filed against him and hence there was no question of influencing the witnesses. He said he had a lot of evidence to prove that every word in the FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is false.

The officer said there was no misappropriation of even one rupee. He said the Israeli company wrote to the government that it paid no commission.

In February 2020, the state government had placed Venkateswara Rao, the IPS officer of 1989 batch, under suspension for his alleged misconduct and irregularities in the purchase of security equipment.

The officer was working as Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) during the previous government

Considered close to then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Rao was removed as the intelligence chief after Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy assumed office in May 2019. He was waiting for a posting.

The police officer had approached Andhra Pradesh High Court, which had set aside the suspension on May 22, 2020.

The Supreme Court on April 22, 2022 dismissed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the state government challenging Andhra Pradesh High Court order.

The Supreme Court made it clear that the suspension could be for a maximum of two years as per the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Amendments Rules, 2015. It said since the two year period was over, the suspension could no longer be in place.

In May, the state government issued orders revoking Rao’s suspension with effect from February, 2022.

Though the officer had reported to the General Administration Department on May 19 for the posting, he was made to wait for nearly a month. He was finally appointed as commissioner, printing and stationery on June 15.

Rao said Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Srilakshmi has cases against her and chargesheets were filed against her but All India Service rules did not apply to her. “When the rules don’t apply to her, how can they apply to me,” he asked.

Srilakshmi is facing corruption charges in quid pro quo cases allegedly involving Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The IPS officer said several petitions and complaints were filed against him but during these three years there was no evidence that he did anything wrong.

Crime

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

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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.”

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Crime

Manipur govt launches verification of papers of arms license holders

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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.

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Crime

Put under house arrest again, says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

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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’.

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