Crime Diary: July 25
25 July 2012 6:54 AM IST
ROBBERS KILL TWO SENIOR CITIZENS
Crimes against the elderly are on the rise. In the latest such incident in the city, an elderly woman was killed by a gang of three, apparently aged between 20 and 30 years, as they ransacked her house looking for valuables. Finding nothing of worth in the first house, the trio went on to another house in the same locality, killing their second victim within half-an-hour.
‘The three were desperate. When they failed to get something of worth at the first house they targeted another in the same area,’ an investigator said, adding that the three went on to the second house even though they knew that a call had been made to the police after they stabbed one woman and injured another at the first house.
Around 1.45 am, they barged into the house of Shanti Devi, who lived on the ground floor with her husband Bishan Lal and son Bhim Singh. Her four other sons live on the upper floors of the same multi-storeyed house located at Pocket-G in Rohini south.One of the attackers opened the door by putting his hand through the window besides the door. Hearing some noise, Shanti Devi woke up and started shouting. Hearing that, her son Bhim also woke up and tried to fight with one of the assailants.
Meanwhile, a third assailant, who had been standing outside the house, entered and stabbed the mother and son with a sharp-edged knife. Shanti Devi was stabbed thrice on the back, before the attacker fled, injuring Bhim on the hand as he fled. ‘After the incident, we immediately rushed our mother to the Jaipur Golden hospital and informed the police. But she was soon declared dead,’ said Dilip Singh, one of Shanti Devi’s sons. All five sons work as contractors.
Since Shanti Devi and Bhim Singh raised an alarm, the gang had to leave with just a wallet and a purse from their house, said a police officer. But within half an hour, they attacked another house in Pocket D, located about 300 metres away from Shanti Devi’s house. Reshma Rani, who was sleeping alone on the ground floor of the house was stabbed to death by the assailants.
‘They entered the room after cutting away a section of the window. When my mother saw them and raised an alarm, they stabbed her twice and fled from the scene,’ said Jyoti, daughter of Resham Rani. Even in their hurry, they managed to take away some gold jewellery that the victim had been wearing.
Jyoti lives with her husband Rishi, who works as toy exporter, on the second floor while her mother-in-law, Mohini Satija, 64, was sleeping with the couple’s children on the first floor of the house. After the incident, Rishi rushed Reshma Rani to Baba Bhim Rao Ambedkar hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.
‘The incident took place around 2.15 am. I was sleeping with my grandchildren on the first floor of the house. Reshma was lying in a pool of blood on her bed when I came downstairs after hearing the screaming and shouting,’ Mohini Satija said.
‘A wallet that had been stolen from the first house, was found at the second house. The attackers took away the cash and threw the empty wallet there,’ a police official said.
The three have been detained by the police and their involvement in the two cases is being verified.
ARMY CONSTABLE ACCUSED OF KILLING FAMILY
An army constable has been accused of killing his two-year-old daughter, his wife and mother in a village in Gurgaon. The accused, 28-year-old Rakesh Kumar, was apprehended by the police soon after from the crime scene. Kumar was on leave and had come to stay with his family.
‘The incident took place around 4 pm on Tuesday. A neighbour informed the police about the murder of three people. When the police reached the spot, they found the bodies lying on the floor. The victims were identified as Suresh Devi, 50, mother of the accused, Sharmila 26, wife and Nidhi, 2, daughter. Rakesh was apprehended by the police from the house,’ said Maheshwar Dayal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South). Dayal added, ‘A rope was found around the necks of both Suresh Devi and Sharmila. The other part of the rope was attached to the ceiling fan. At first glance, it seemed to be a case of suicide. The body of the child was lying on the bed.’
Neighbours told the police that Rakesh had murdered them and that they had heard him shouting at his mother and wife on Monday night regarding some family issue. ‘The neighbours’ statement have been recorded at the Bilaspur police station,’ a police official said.
Rakesh, however, has told the police that it was a case of suicide and that he is innocent. The bodies have been sent for post mortem. ‘The autopsy report will help clear what led to their deaths,’ Dayal said.
A case has been registered against Rakesh Kumar under the sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
PAN BAHAR MANAGER KILLED
A 52-year-old administrative manager working with a private firm was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne assailants in Moti Nagar area of west Delhi on Tuesday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Nirmal Jain, who lived with his wife, 18-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter in west Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh. He had been working as an administrative manager with Pan Bahar Company for over four years.
‘Nirmal was shot at outside his office around 10.30 am and was rushed to nearby Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital. Doctors declared him dead on arrival. A bullet had pierced his chest,’ a police official said. His body was later shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital for post-mortem.
13-YEAR-OLD RESCUED FROM TRAFFICKERS
A 13-year-old girl was rescued by the police during a raid at a placement agency in the Shakurpur Basti on Tuesday . The agency has been allegedly involved in trafficking children.
The raid was jointly conducted by the Delhi Police and a team from Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), following a tip-off.
On interrogation, the placement agency’s owners purportedly confessed that they were involved in child trafficking, police said.
A search is also on to find the whereabouts of another 13-year-old girl, hailing from Jharkhand, who came to Delhi in 2009 after being promised a secure job and has been missing since, they said.
ROAD RAGE CLAIMS ONE NEAR MAHAMAYA FLY OVER
A road rage on the Noida-Greater Noida Express way near the Mahamaya flyover on Monday night ended with an accident and the death of a truck helper. The police have arrested around seven youths for causing the road rage, however locals have said that the youths were engaged in road-robbery and robbed over Rs 1.7 lakhs from seven trucks passing through the area.
According to the police over a dozen local youths in a Bolero were trying to overtake a sand loaded truck and lost their cool when they were not allowed to pass by. ‘They somehow overtook the truck, stopped it and deflated its tyres and manhandled the driver and the helper of the truck.
Meanwhile another TATA 407 truck rammed in the truck had the youths had stopped. The helper of the TATA 407 died in the accident,’ said Anuj Choudhury, Station House Officer of Phase-II police station.
A police complaint was filed by the victim of the road rage and driver of the first truck, Mukesh at the Phase-II police staiton of Noida.
‘The youths are relatives of a sand mafia and were engaged in road-robbery. They have robbed over Rs 1.7 lakh and mobiles from seven trucks passing over the Maha Maya flyover. They used pistols to deflate the tyres of the truck,’ a resident of the area said.
TWO DIE AS UNAUTHORISED BUILDING COLLAPSES
Two persons, including a woman, died, and five others were injured after a portion of three-storey under-construction unauthorised building collapsed in west Delhi’s Kirti Nagar area on Tuesday afternoon.
‘The incident took place at 12.30 pm at furniture market in Kirti Nagar. The front portion of the building collapsed, said a police officer.
Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot for rescue operation, said Sunil Chaudhary, Divisional Fire Officer.
After a joint effort by Fire department, Delhi Police and Delhi Disaster Management Authority, which lasted almost three hours, seven people were pulled out of the rubble.
‘They were rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where two were declared dead on arrival while five others are being treated,’ a police official added. Initial probe has revealed that the labourers were laying the roof on the third floor when the walls collapsed.The building was to be used for commercial purposes. A local said only the front portion of the building was being renovated. ‘I have been seeing labourers working on the building for the last 15-20 days,’ said Naresh, who has a shop in the area.
After the incident, police registered a case of negligence under Sections 288 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code against the owner of the building, Sukhwinder Singh. The deceased are still unidentified, said an official.
Meanwhile, taking the matter seriously, North Delhi Municipal Corporation placed Assistant Engineer R K Saxena and Junior Engineer Rajesh Sharma of the Building Department of Karol Bagh zone under suspension with immediate effect.
‘Action has been taken on the basis of preliminary findings for dereliction of duty and lack of supervision. The executive engineer of the Karol Bagh zone, S K Chauhan, has also been issued showcause notice. The construction was unauthorised,’ said an MCD official.
FORMER ARMY OFFICER ACQUITTED IN GRAFT CASE
A special court here has acquitted a retired officer of an army hospital in a 12-year-old cheating case allegedly involving bogus bills for supply of medicine.
Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma, in an order passed Saturday, acquitted former Lt Col J K Bhagat who earlier headed the nuclear medicine department (NMD) of the Army (Research and Referral) Hospital.
The case was registered in 2000 and probed by the CBI which accused both Bhagat and medicine supplier Kent Industries’ proprietor Gagan Khanna of cheating the NMD and causing pecuniary loss to it. Khanna has also been acquitted by the court.
The case was registered after a surprise inspection of the NMD 28 April 2000 by defence ministry officials.
During the check, nine vials of medicine Ceretec were physically found in the medical store as against 36 vials that should have been there as per the official record.
The court said that Bhagat as senior officer in the project of Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC) acted probably in ‘best interest of the department’ without any intention or malice in the entire operation.
‘He (Bhagat) was a senior officer in the project of AFMRC and he probably acted in best interest of the department ensuring that no undue loss is caused due to shorter life of medicine, which had the approval of the commandant,’ the court said in an order made available Tuesday.
During the trial, however, it emerged that the NMD had an informal understanding with the supplier that it would retain the medicine for safe-keeping and supply it as soon as its need arose.
The court expressed shock on the gap between the raid and the registration of case.
‘The most shocking aspect of this case is that while the raid was conducted on 28 April 2000 the first information report (FIR) was registered on 3 October 2001 and thereafter it took the prosecution more than four years to complete the investigation and file the chargesheet in the court on 1 July 2005,’ said the court.
Crimes against the elderly are on the rise. In the latest such incident in the city, an elderly woman was killed by a gang of three, apparently aged between 20 and 30 years, as they ransacked her house looking for valuables. Finding nothing of worth in the first house, the trio went on to another house in the same locality, killing their second victim within half-an-hour.
‘The three were desperate. When they failed to get something of worth at the first house they targeted another in the same area,’ an investigator said, adding that the three went on to the second house even though they knew that a call had been made to the police after they stabbed one woman and injured another at the first house.
Around 1.45 am, they barged into the house of Shanti Devi, who lived on the ground floor with her husband Bishan Lal and son Bhim Singh. Her four other sons live on the upper floors of the same multi-storeyed house located at Pocket-G in Rohini south.One of the attackers opened the door by putting his hand through the window besides the door. Hearing some noise, Shanti Devi woke up and started shouting. Hearing that, her son Bhim also woke up and tried to fight with one of the assailants.
Meanwhile, a third assailant, who had been standing outside the house, entered and stabbed the mother and son with a sharp-edged knife. Shanti Devi was stabbed thrice on the back, before the attacker fled, injuring Bhim on the hand as he fled. ‘After the incident, we immediately rushed our mother to the Jaipur Golden hospital and informed the police. But she was soon declared dead,’ said Dilip Singh, one of Shanti Devi’s sons. All five sons work as contractors.
Since Shanti Devi and Bhim Singh raised an alarm, the gang had to leave with just a wallet and a purse from their house, said a police officer. But within half an hour, they attacked another house in Pocket D, located about 300 metres away from Shanti Devi’s house. Reshma Rani, who was sleeping alone on the ground floor of the house was stabbed to death by the assailants.
‘They entered the room after cutting away a section of the window. When my mother saw them and raised an alarm, they stabbed her twice and fled from the scene,’ said Jyoti, daughter of Resham Rani. Even in their hurry, they managed to take away some gold jewellery that the victim had been wearing.
Jyoti lives with her husband Rishi, who works as toy exporter, on the second floor while her mother-in-law, Mohini Satija, 64, was sleeping with the couple’s children on the first floor of the house. After the incident, Rishi rushed Reshma Rani to Baba Bhim Rao Ambedkar hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.
‘The incident took place around 2.15 am. I was sleeping with my grandchildren on the first floor of the house. Reshma was lying in a pool of blood on her bed when I came downstairs after hearing the screaming and shouting,’ Mohini Satija said.
‘A wallet that had been stolen from the first house, was found at the second house. The attackers took away the cash and threw the empty wallet there,’ a police official said.
The three have been detained by the police and their involvement in the two cases is being verified.
ARMY CONSTABLE ACCUSED OF KILLING FAMILY
An army constable has been accused of killing his two-year-old daughter, his wife and mother in a village in Gurgaon. The accused, 28-year-old Rakesh Kumar, was apprehended by the police soon after from the crime scene. Kumar was on leave and had come to stay with his family.
‘The incident took place around 4 pm on Tuesday. A neighbour informed the police about the murder of three people. When the police reached the spot, they found the bodies lying on the floor. The victims were identified as Suresh Devi, 50, mother of the accused, Sharmila 26, wife and Nidhi, 2, daughter. Rakesh was apprehended by the police from the house,’ said Maheshwar Dayal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South). Dayal added, ‘A rope was found around the necks of both Suresh Devi and Sharmila. The other part of the rope was attached to the ceiling fan. At first glance, it seemed to be a case of suicide. The body of the child was lying on the bed.’
Neighbours told the police that Rakesh had murdered them and that they had heard him shouting at his mother and wife on Monday night regarding some family issue. ‘The neighbours’ statement have been recorded at the Bilaspur police station,’ a police official said.
Rakesh, however, has told the police that it was a case of suicide and that he is innocent. The bodies have been sent for post mortem. ‘The autopsy report will help clear what led to their deaths,’ Dayal said.
A case has been registered against Rakesh Kumar under the sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
PAN BAHAR MANAGER KILLED
A 52-year-old administrative manager working with a private firm was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne assailants in Moti Nagar area of west Delhi on Tuesday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Nirmal Jain, who lived with his wife, 18-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter in west Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh. He had been working as an administrative manager with Pan Bahar Company for over four years.
‘Nirmal was shot at outside his office around 10.30 am and was rushed to nearby Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital. Doctors declared him dead on arrival. A bullet had pierced his chest,’ a police official said. His body was later shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital for post-mortem.
13-YEAR-OLD RESCUED FROM TRAFFICKERS
A 13-year-old girl was rescued by the police during a raid at a placement agency in the Shakurpur Basti on Tuesday . The agency has been allegedly involved in trafficking children.
The raid was jointly conducted by the Delhi Police and a team from Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), following a tip-off.
On interrogation, the placement agency’s owners purportedly confessed that they were involved in child trafficking, police said.
A search is also on to find the whereabouts of another 13-year-old girl, hailing from Jharkhand, who came to Delhi in 2009 after being promised a secure job and has been missing since, they said.
ROAD RAGE CLAIMS ONE NEAR MAHAMAYA FLY OVER
A road rage on the Noida-Greater Noida Express way near the Mahamaya flyover on Monday night ended with an accident and the death of a truck helper. The police have arrested around seven youths for causing the road rage, however locals have said that the youths were engaged in road-robbery and robbed over Rs 1.7 lakhs from seven trucks passing through the area.
According to the police over a dozen local youths in a Bolero were trying to overtake a sand loaded truck and lost their cool when they were not allowed to pass by. ‘They somehow overtook the truck, stopped it and deflated its tyres and manhandled the driver and the helper of the truck.
Meanwhile another TATA 407 truck rammed in the truck had the youths had stopped. The helper of the TATA 407 died in the accident,’ said Anuj Choudhury, Station House Officer of Phase-II police station.
A police complaint was filed by the victim of the road rage and driver of the first truck, Mukesh at the Phase-II police staiton of Noida.
‘The youths are relatives of a sand mafia and were engaged in road-robbery. They have robbed over Rs 1.7 lakh and mobiles from seven trucks passing over the Maha Maya flyover. They used pistols to deflate the tyres of the truck,’ a resident of the area said.
TWO DIE AS UNAUTHORISED BUILDING COLLAPSES
Two persons, including a woman, died, and five others were injured after a portion of three-storey under-construction unauthorised building collapsed in west Delhi’s Kirti Nagar area on Tuesday afternoon.
‘The incident took place at 12.30 pm at furniture market in Kirti Nagar. The front portion of the building collapsed, said a police officer.
Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot for rescue operation, said Sunil Chaudhary, Divisional Fire Officer.
After a joint effort by Fire department, Delhi Police and Delhi Disaster Management Authority, which lasted almost three hours, seven people were pulled out of the rubble.
‘They were rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where two were declared dead on arrival while five others are being treated,’ a police official added. Initial probe has revealed that the labourers were laying the roof on the third floor when the walls collapsed.The building was to be used for commercial purposes. A local said only the front portion of the building was being renovated. ‘I have been seeing labourers working on the building for the last 15-20 days,’ said Naresh, who has a shop in the area.
After the incident, police registered a case of negligence under Sections 288 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code against the owner of the building, Sukhwinder Singh. The deceased are still unidentified, said an official.
Meanwhile, taking the matter seriously, North Delhi Municipal Corporation placed Assistant Engineer R K Saxena and Junior Engineer Rajesh Sharma of the Building Department of Karol Bagh zone under suspension with immediate effect.
‘Action has been taken on the basis of preliminary findings for dereliction of duty and lack of supervision. The executive engineer of the Karol Bagh zone, S K Chauhan, has also been issued showcause notice. The construction was unauthorised,’ said an MCD official.
FORMER ARMY OFFICER ACQUITTED IN GRAFT CASE
A special court here has acquitted a retired officer of an army hospital in a 12-year-old cheating case allegedly involving bogus bills for supply of medicine.
Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma, in an order passed Saturday, acquitted former Lt Col J K Bhagat who earlier headed the nuclear medicine department (NMD) of the Army (Research and Referral) Hospital.
The case was registered in 2000 and probed by the CBI which accused both Bhagat and medicine supplier Kent Industries’ proprietor Gagan Khanna of cheating the NMD and causing pecuniary loss to it. Khanna has also been acquitted by the court.
The case was registered after a surprise inspection of the NMD 28 April 2000 by defence ministry officials.
During the check, nine vials of medicine Ceretec were physically found in the medical store as against 36 vials that should have been there as per the official record.
The court said that Bhagat as senior officer in the project of Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC) acted probably in ‘best interest of the department’ without any intention or malice in the entire operation.
‘He (Bhagat) was a senior officer in the project of AFMRC and he probably acted in best interest of the department ensuring that no undue loss is caused due to shorter life of medicine, which had the approval of the commandant,’ the court said in an order made available Tuesday.
During the trial, however, it emerged that the NMD had an informal understanding with the supplier that it would retain the medicine for safe-keeping and supply it as soon as its need arose.
The court expressed shock on the gap between the raid and the registration of case.
‘The most shocking aspect of this case is that while the raid was conducted on 28 April 2000 the first information report (FIR) was registered on 3 October 2001 and thereafter it took the prosecution more than four years to complete the investigation and file the chargesheet in the court on 1 July 2005,’ said the court.
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