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Godman Rampal arrested after six die in violent stand-off

November 20, 2014

Chandigarh, Nov 20: After weeks of standoff and loss of six lives, self-styled godman Sant Rampal was finally arrested in his fortress-like ashram in the Hisar district of Haryana after the police raided the premises on Wednesday.

In a well-orchestrated strategy, the police stormed the 12-acre ashram around 9 pm on Wednesday after evacuating a majority of the followers who had been camping inside. Rampal was taken into custody in less than 20 minutes after launching the raid.ramla

Rampal will be produced before a local court in Rohtak on Thursday and the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday.

Jubilant scenes were witnessed outside the ashram as several people danced and praised the police for arresting the godman. The arrest is said to have been an outcome of negotiations to ensure that the standoff ended at the earliest. Many of his followers who were stranded inside chose to leave the premises.

Earlier, silence descended on the ashram premises as close to 11,000 followers, some who were forced to camp inside to defend Rampal, walked away from the mayhem.

Police suspected that around 5,000 followers were camped inside the ashram, with several of them refusing to vacate premises, thereby delaying Rampal’s arrest.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar finally broke his silence on Wednesday saying that the High Court order would be upheld and the operation would end with Rampal’s arrest.

At 8:30 am, ashram volunteers handed over bodies of five women and an infant to the district administration. There were no injury marks on the women’s bodies and the cause of death remains to be ascertained through post-mortem, said Director-General of Police S N Vashist. Among them, was a 20-year-old woman, suffering from a heart ailment, who died at hospital in Hisar in the early hours of Wednesday. The infant who died was suffering from congenital jaundice.

Meanwhile, the police on Wednesday booked Rampal on fresh charges of sedition. Besides charges of murder and contempt of court, he now faces charges for waging war against the state, conspiring to commit offences against the state and collecting arms with the intention of waging war against the state.

The police did not enter the ashram on Wednesday maintaining that its first priority was to evacuate those inside. Rampal’s brother, Purshottam Dass, who challenged the police to arrest the godman, was nabbed while trying to escape. At least 270 people from the ashram have been detained and 70 booked, sources said.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am a Delhi court said on Monday.

The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants against four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

New Delhi, Jan 8: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh has filed a complaint over the violence that took place at the varsity campus on Sunday.

"I am filing this complaint for the incident in which a mob conspired and acted with common intention to assault, intimidate and attempt to murder me, and request you to register an FIR and apprehend culprits at the earliest," the complaint read.

She said that on January 5, in the afternoon, she received information from students in the campus that some students affiliated to ABVP along with other unidentified men and women had gathered with weapons like rods, sledgehammers and lathis near Ganga Bus Stop.

"I along with Nikhil Mathew (MA Labour Studies) who was also present there, were surrounded by a group of persons of that mob most of whom were wearing masks. The mob of 20-30 persons dragged me behind a car standing near the 24*7 and surrounded me and despite my pleading did not let me go and attacked me with rods while I had fallen down. I remember that one of the people was of medium height wearing a brownish-red sweatshirt with UCLA written on it. I saw his face as he was facing me and did not have a mask on and can identify him if I see him," Ghosh wrote in her complaint.

"I was attacked by the above-mentioned persons collectively and was hit on the head multiple times with iron rods. I fell to the ground and my head started bleeding, and some of them kicked me and hit me with the rod on my hand and rest of the body including my head, chest and back."

"I am attaching with this complaint a copy of the MLC which details my injuries. Nikhil Mathew tried to save me but was also hit with an iron hammer and other weapons on his head and arms. The intention of the group of men and their acts was definitely to murder me and other persons associated with me," she said.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

New Delhi, Aug 3: India's COVID-19 tally crossed the 18 lakh mark with 52,972 positive cases and 771 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

The total COVID-19 cases stand at 18,03,696 including 5,79,357 active cases, 11,86,203 cured/discharged/migrated and 38,135 deaths," said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday.

As per the data provided by the Health Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst affected state from the infection -- has a total of 1,48,843 active cases and 15,576 deaths. A total of 4,41,228 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Sunday.

Tamil Nadu has reported a total of 56,998 active cases and 4,132 deaths. While Delhi has recorded 10,356 active cases, 1,23,317 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 4,004 deaths.

The COVID-19 samples tested across the country has crossed the 2 crore mark till August 2.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to August 2 is 2,02,02,858 including 3,81,027 tests that were conducted yesterday, said Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday. 

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