Journalist, family murdered; hand of mining mafia suspected

[email protected] (THE HINDU)
February 20, 2012

Bhopal, February 20: The brutal murder of a senior journalist and his entire family on Saturday night in Madhya Pradesh's Umaria distict, over 450 km from here, has sent shockwaves across the State with fingers being pointed at the illegal coal mining mafia active in the region.


Journalist Chandrika Rai (42), his wife Durga (40) and their two teenage children — son Jalaj (19) and daughter Nisha (17) — were murdered using a sharp object at their residence, police said. The bodies were found in four separate rooms.


Mr. Rai was a freelance journalist who contributed regularly to the Hindi dailyNavbharat and English daily The Hitavada. He had been writing consistently against the illegal coal mining in the region. He had written a series of articles alleging the involvement of a local BJP leader in illegal mining.


The district is known for the Umaria coalfield under the control of the South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. However, illegal coal mining is also rampant in the region.


“The local illegal mining mafia has resorted to this horrific crime to silence the power of his pen,” said Congress MLA and leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ajay Singh. “The BJP government gives open protection to the local mining mafia. Recently Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and some of his Ministers were seen sharing the stage with wanted criminals. In such a situation, criminals have no fear of the law and commit such mind-numbing crimes with impunity whenever their interests are harmed.”


The crime came to light when Mr. Rai's brother broke open the door on Saturday evening after he became suspicious on seeing it locked from the outside the entire day.

Linked to abduction?

The Umaria police believe the murders could also be linked to the kidnap of the seven-year-old son of a government official for ransom on Wednesday. He was rescued by the police on Thursday.


“DGP Raut visited the crime scene on Sunday and has ordered an STF probe,” Umaria SP Manohar Singh Jamara told The Hindu. “He also spoke to journalists here and assured them that the criminals would be brought to book as soon as possible. We have constituted a team to look into the crime and assist the STF which will arrive here tomorrow [Monday].”
Land dispute


Another angle the police are investigating relates to a land dispute involving Mr. Rai and another local individual.

murder


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News Network
May 11,2020

May 11: Two youths allegedly gang-raped a teen and then hacked to death her 11-year old brother, who had seen their act, in a bid to hide their crime, at a village in Uttar Pradesh's Etah district, about 300 kilometres from here.

Police sources said that two youths, resident of the same village, barged into the house of the teen, when she was alone, and allegedly gang-raped her.

The victim's minor brother suddenly came into the house and protested after he witnessed his sister being sexually assaulted, sources said. The youths allegedly strangled the minor with a towel.

The alleged culprits, who hailed from influential families, 'forced' the victim's parents to bury their son and warned them against approaching the cops.

The parents, however, gathered courage and met senior police officials in Etah on Sunday after a case was registered in this regard. Police said that the body of the minor would be exhumed and a postmortem examination would be conducted.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Bareilly, Jan 9: In a bizarre development, a woman has been arrested for inflicting 101 cuts on her sister-in-law in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, the police said on Thursday.

The woman was practicing exorcism to cure her father who had been ailing for some time.

The woman, Moni, was helped by her husband Mooli and brother Raju in the act, which happened on Tuesday.

The sister-in-law Renu who suffered the cuts, was given 300 stitches on her face and other parts of the body by the doctors.

Renu has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where her condition is said to be serious.

Moni, 30, has been sent to jail while Mooli and Raju are absconding.

Baradari police station officer inspector Naresh Tyagi said that a complaint had been filed by Renu's brother under section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.

"We will record Renu's statements in a day or two once she is stable and in a condition to talk to us. We have sent Moni to jail," the inspector said.

Renu, a resident of Ganghora village in Bareilly, was married to Sanjeev around eight years ago.

Her father-in-law, Jagdish, fell ill a few months ago.

"Accused Moni, who practices exorcism, decided to cure her father by initiating the act. Going by superstitious beliefs, they inflicted as many as 101 cuts on Renu's face and body. It cannot be ruled out that they wanted to sacrifice her to complete the act," police inspector said.

On Tuesday night, the accused had locked Renu's husband and mother-in-law in another room when they tried to stop them from making her a scapegoat.

When the accused trio started inflicting cuts on Renu, she struggled to get out of their clutches and somehow managed to escape from the house.

She had run a short distance when she collapsed and became unconscious. A police constable on patrol reportedly spotted her and she was taken to a district hospital. Once regaining her consciousness, she narrated her ordeal to the police who then informed her parents.

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Agencies
July 8,2020

Kanpur, Jul 8: The Special Task Force (STF) shot dead Amar Dubey in an encounter in Maudaha on Wednesday morning. Amar, a right hand man of gangster Vikas Dubey, who shot dead eight police personnel on Friday last, figured prominently in the list of wanted persons released by the Kanpur police on Tuesday.

He was a named accused in the massacre.

According to STF sources, the police team had received a tip off about Amar's presence in the district and when they tried to close in on him, the criminal opened fire on them, He was killed in retaliatory firing around 6.30.a.m,

Amar was reportedly heading towards the house of one of his relatives in Maudaha area.

"We asked him to surrender but he opened fire at us and was killed when we returned the fire," said an STF official.

Earlier, he had been hiding in Faridabad but moved out after police pressure increased there.

Amar Dubey was a trusted accomplice of Vikas Dubey and the police had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on him after the Kanpur massacre.

Incidentally, reports claim that Vikas Dubey was also seen at a hotel in Faridabad on Tuesday night but fled before the police could close in on him.

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