Australian teen gets 13 years in jail for Nitin Garg murder

December 22, 2011

Melbourne, December 22: An Australian court on Thursday sentenced a Melbourne teenager to 13 years in jail for murdering Indian student Nitin Garg, a crime which outraged public opinion in India and put the bilateral relations under stress.

GARG

Nitin Garg

The teenager, whose identity has not been revealed as he is a minor, had pleaded guilty in April to one count of murder and one count of attempted armed robbery in the killing of 21-year-old Garg.

Garg, who migrated from Punjab, was fatally stabbed in the abdomen by assailants in Cruickshank Park in Melbourne’s Yarraville while on his way to work in January 2010.

Justice Paul Coghlan of the Victoria State Supreme Court sentenced the teenager to 13 years in jail, with a non-parole period of eight years, Australian news agency AAP reported.

Justice Coghlan said the killing was awful and tragic.

He, however, said it was a crime of opportunity rather than race.

He found the task of sentencing a very difficult one, the judge said. “In circumstances such as these there are just no winners.”

The judge said one able young man was dead, while the teenager’s life had changed forever.

“Although this was a very serious crime, it was committed spontaneously,” he said, adding, “It should be noted, however, that you chose to arm yourself and did a great deal to avoid apprehension for your crime.”

The accused was 15 and a half when he stabbed Garg, an accounts graduate.

The murder, which followed a series of attacks on Indians, made international headlines and provoked fear among Indian students in Australia.

Justice Coghlan said for “reasons never explained” the accused teenager left the house with a folding knife in his pocket.

The judge said that the boys were in the park when Garg walked past on his way to work at the Yarraville Hungry Jack’s restaurant on the corner of Geelong and Somerville roads and was talking on his phone.

The boy’s friend said “that bloke’s phone looks nice” so the boy took his long-sleeve jumper off and wrapped it over his face saying he was going to “roll” Garg.

He held the knife up to Garg and demanded his phone.

Justice Coghlan said Garg grabbed the boy but the boy stabbed him in the abdomen.

Garg ran to his workplace where he collapsed and he died in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in the early hours of the following morning.

Justice Coghlan said that after the attack the boy went home and watched a movie and found out the following day that Garg had died.

He said, however, that it had taken some time for the boy to speak to police.

He said the boy’s friend had made a statement to police last May implicating both of them in the crime and the boy was not charged until June. He has been in custody ever since.

Justice Coghlan said he accepted the boy was remorseful and had no intention to kill when he went to the park.

He said Garg was “an innocent and random victim” and it was his presence in the park, not his race, that led to him being attacked.

The Garg’s stabbing was widely condemned with the Indian government warning it could affect bilateral ties.

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News Network
January 15,2020

New Delhi, Jan 15: The CBI has booked 17 individuals and companies, including three Mumbai-based senior Customs officials, for allegedly being part of a money laundering racket using over-invoiced import of diamonds worth more than Rs 156 crore, official said on Tuesday.

The case was referred to the CBI after a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence probe found alleged involvement of Customs officials in the conspiracy, they said.

The DRI probe had alleged that Hong Kong-based businessman Girish Kadel had imported rough diamonds from Switzerland to Hong Kong in the name of his four companies.

Kadel, who had business interests in India, had exported some of these diamonds to India through 14 consignments in the name of two companies Antique Exim Pvt Ltd and Tanman Jewels showing over-invoiced value of Rs 156.28 crore.

The DRI had found during revaluation that actual value of the consignment was Rs 1.03 crore instead of falsely declared value of Rs 156.28 crore, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Kadel used Import Export Codes (IECs) of Antique Exim Private Ltd and Tanman Jewels through his aide Atul Paldecha for siphoning off the money outside India through import of over-valued diamonds, the officials said.

Rough diamonds were imported at "highly exaggerated value" to siphon off excess foreign exchange overseas to cover the differential cost of other imports and park money abroad for unlawful activities.

It is alleged that the then Commissioner APSC Mumbai, Vinay Brij Singh, influenced subordinate officers to give favourable report, they said.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Jun 10: In a suspected case of honor killing in Telangana, a 20-year old woman was allegedly smothered to death by her parents for being in love with a man from another caste, becoming pregnant and refusing to undergo an abortion, police said on Tuesday.

The parents killed their daughter using a pillow while she was asleep in the early hours of June 7 in their house in Kalukuntla in Jogulamba-Gadwal district and sought to project it as natural death, claiming she died of a heart attack.

However, following specific information and suspicion raised by the village secretary over the death of the woman, a college student, a probe was launched and the couple arrested on charges of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 after post-mortem, police said.

The parents decided to kill the woman, the youngest of their three daughters, a day after she was found pregnant and refused to undergo an abortion, police said.

The woman had fallen in love with the man while pursuing her degree course in Kurnool district in neighboring Andhra Pradesh and informed her parents about it after she was found pregnant during an examination by a doctor. Her parents feared that their daughter may elope with her lover and brought pressure on her to go for abortion.

Though initially, she agreed, later she declined, following which they killed her and told everyone that their daughter died of heart attack, the police official said. When a police team went to their house and insisted on a post-mortem after noticing some marks on her body indicating a struggle, the parents tried to stop it, saying there was no need.

Later, police shifted the body to a hospital where a post-mortem revealed the woman was "throttled to death". Her parents during interrogation confessed to killing their daughter, the official said, adding they were arrested.

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Agencies
May 24,2020

Kanpur, May 24: Three persons onboard separate Shramik Special trains lost their lives due to various ailment, officials said here on Saturday.

"Family members of the deceased said all were suffering from serious ailment. The travel history of all the three deceased passengers was taken, Kanpur District Magistrate Brahma Deo Ram Tiwari said.

Giving details about the deceased, he said Naichinalyu Disang (23), a resident of Nagaland, was going from Delhi to Dimapur.

"She was suffering from liver ailments," Tiwari said. As she coughed and vomited in the train, other passengers got terrified, he added.

The district magistrate said the body reached Kanpur Central Station at around 10.00 am.

Sample has been taken to check for the presence of novel coronavirus. She was working at a spa in Himachal Pradesh, he said.

Tiwari said Rajendra Prasad (50), a resident of Unnao, died on the Lucknow-bound special train from Andhra Pradesh.

Munni Devi (80), a resident of Siwan district in Bihar, died onboard the special train going from Surat to Siwan, the senior official informed.

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