Night of terror at New Market: Girl molested in bar, chased, pulled out of bus and thrashed

June 12, 2012

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Kolkata, June 12: In the deserted New Market area, around 11.30pm on Sunday, a young girl ran for her life from a group of molesters, chased by a band of locals who had joined in for fun. Bleeding from deep cuts, breathless and panic-stricken, she saw a bus moving towards Esplanade and made a desperate leap for it. To her horror, the gang stopped the bus, pulled her out and started beating her. No one in the bus raised a finger in protest.

The assault continued until the 21-year-old girl collapsed on the road, wailing and pleading for mercy. She had fought on as long as a lone woman could against a mob. Just when she feared it would get worse, the attackers saw she was bleeding heavily from her injuries, lost their nerve and fled.

When TOI met her on Monday, she had her right hand in a sling. It took 14 stitches to seal her wound. "The horror will haunt me for the rest of my life. But I will fight till the molesters are put behind bars," the gutsy north Kolkata girl said. TOI is withholding her name for security reasons. She is also a key witness in the Park Street rape case, which had shocked the nation and brought home the unpleasant truth that the city may be getting increasingly unsafe for women. It was she who had come forward with information to help police nab the alleged rapists.

Like the earlier incident, the accused in the New Market case are also businessmen. They were remanded in police custody on Monday.

The incident comes barely three days after a homemaker was kidnapped and raped by the driver of a luxury taxi. The 21-year-old said that she and her friends had been to a lounge bar near Lindsay Street only once or twice, and always with male company. "On Sunday, it was just us three girls. When we reached at 11pm, it was very crowded. Even the bar stools were taken so we stood near the bar," she recalled. The three friends were happily chatting, when a man suddenly came and grabbed her from behind, she says.


"My skin crawled. I immediately wrenched myself out of his clasp, and shoved him with my elbows. Then I turned around and pushed him away with both my hands," she said. The man stumbled with the forcefulness of the counterattack and staggered back a few steps.



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Agencies
May 6,2020

A man posed as Superintendent of Police (SP), called up a subordinate police official and asked him to get his mobile phone repaired or face the consequences. But, his bluff was later called and the man landed in lockup.

Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh said the 23-year-old youth, Shubham Upadhyay, is the son of a farmer. He was preparing for competitive exams when his phone developed a snag on Saturday. He tried to reach out to local mechanics, but they were unavailable to fix it due to the lockdown.

Upadhyay used a free caller identification app to call up the in-charge of the Kotwali police station, K. K. Gupta, and threatened to shunt him out, if he failed to swiftly get the work done. Gupta grew suspicious and eventually caught the youth.

n his statement to the police, Shubham Upadhyay said, "On Sunday noon, I tried to breach the district borders to reach Lucknow to repair my phone, but since there was heavy police presence and barricading, I returned home. Later, I installed a free caller identification app in my handset and mentioned the name as SP Azamgarh and even uploaded a photo of the cop to appear genuine."

He first called SHO, Kotwali to get the phone repaired and was told the handset would be picked up from the SP office in an hour. Then, he called a businessman to bring his SUV and hand over his mobile to the SHO.

But when Upadhyay called the police again to suggest a separate meeting point, he raised suspicion. When the SHO tried to confirm the venue, Upadhyay got hesitant and said he would send a peon.

"I suddenly realised something was fishy and rang up the public relation officer of SP Azamgarh, who denied any such order from the SP. When the caller's number was scanned, it displayed the name of SP Azamgarh," said SHO Gupta.

A trap was laid and when the SHO reached the venue, he found one Praveen Shukla sitting in the vehicle. Police got the address of the accused from Shukla and reached Upadhyay's home in Bilariya locality and arrested him.

Upadhyay has been booked under IT Act and for threatening a public servant.

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: A 16-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide at her house in east Delhi and her family members secretly buried her body, which was later exhumed for post-mortem, police said on Wednesday.

The girl, whose family hails from Jharkhand, allegedly hanged herself in a room in her house on Monday, they said.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot, police said.

Her body was exhumed on Tuesday as per the directions of the Sub Divisional Magistrate of the area. The process was carried out as her family members secretly buried her without informing the police.

The post-mortem will be conducted after Covid-19 tests, police said.

The incident took place on Monday. The reason behind her taking the extreme step is yet to be ascertained, they said.

Police said the girl lived with her mother and two siblings. The family hails from Jharkhand and are financially extremely weak. Her father died two years ago, they said.

After the father’s death, the girl's mother along with her siblings took her body to a burial ground and buried her, police said.

The police said the matter came to their notice after a neighbour alerted them about it. Following the information the body was exhumed, they said.

On questioning the girl's mother, she told police that she didn't know that one has to inform police in a suicide case, a senior police officer said.

Inquest proceedings have been initiated, police said.

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News Network
June 30,2020

Visakhapatnam, Jun 30: Two people were killed and four others were taken ill after benzene gas leaked at a pharmaceutical company at Parawada near here early on Tuesday morning, official sources said.

The situation was now under control as the leak was restricted to one unit in the Sainor Life Sciences company, the sources said.

The two killed were senior employees of the company, they said.

The injured persons have been admitted to a hospital in Gajuwaka, with one of them being put on ventilator support, the sources added.

District Collector V Vinay Chand and Police Commissioner R K Meena visited the company to take stock of the situation.

The cause of the leak that took place in a reactor unit at the plant is yet to be established.

The incident comes nearly two months after 11 people were killed and over 1000 taken ill after gas leak at a chemical plant here.

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