India’s Bhadresh Kumar in FBI’s top 10 most wanted list, massive hunt on

Agencies
October 19, 2019

Ahmedabad, Oct     19: Considered as one of the biggest ever simultaneous chases in the US and India, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is hunting for an Indian fugitive, Bhadresh Kumar Patel, for the past four years.

Patel, who hails from Viramgam in Ahmedabad, figures in the FBI's top 10 list of most wanted fugitives and carries an award of $100,000.

FBI considers Patel as a cold-blooded murderer and an 'extremely dangerous' criminal who killed his young wife at a Dunkin' Donuts store in Hanover, Maryland, in a most bizarre way.

Though the top 10 list of most wanted fugitives is constantly updated and changed, as Bhadresh Patel continues to run from one place to another, his name continues to figure in the latest FBI list (2019), which includes some of the most dreaded fugitives. Patel's name first figured in the top 10 list in 2017.

Assisting the FBI in its investigation, County police detective Kally Harding said, "Patel's wife Palak was young and the scene was very brutal... She was killed in a horrible way, that's the kind of person (killer) we are dealing with."

Palak (21) and Patel (then 24) were working in night shift in the Dunkin' Donuts store. The CCTV footage retrieved from the store shows Bhadresh and Palak walking together towards the kitchen before disappearing behind the racks. Moments later, Patel reappears. He then shuts off the kitchen oven and walks out of the store, as if nothing had happened. His body language and facial impression seem to be very normal.

The FBI investigation into the brutal murder, which sent shock waves in Maryland, disclosed that the body of Palak, found hours later in the night of April 12, 2015, carried multiple stab wounds.

After brutally beating and stabbing Palak to death, Patel left the store and returned to his nearby apartment by foot. He then picked up some personal items and hired a cab to a hotel near an airport in Newark.

The taxi driver later reported that Patel was looking normal during the ride. CCTV footage revealed that Patel later checked into a hotel in Newark and was seen at the counter paying in cash for a room. He slept over the night and left the hotel in the morning.

Since then the FBI sleuths and their vast network of informers are trying hard to gather clues about Patel's whereabouts. The hunt for Patel is on in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi.

Posters with different photographs of Patel have been printed in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and even in French and they have been circulated in different parts of the world where Patel could hide.

FBI's agent in Delhi is also coordinating with different state police and law enforcing agencies to keep a tab on Patel's known friends and relatives. According to a senior IPS officer of Delhi Police, all efforts would be made to trace the fugitive if leads are provided by the FBI.

On several occasions, Indian probe agencies have coordinated with the FBI and other foreign police organisations to nab fugitives. In 2004, Indian immigrant Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, wanted in the sensational murder of British teen Hannah Claire Foster (17), was arrested from Darjeeling on a tip-off by the the British agencies.

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News Network
April 27,2020

London, Apr 27: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns to work on Monday more than three weeks after being hospitalised for the coronavirus and spending three days in intensive care.

Johnson, one of the highest-profile people to have contracted the virus, returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday evening and will chair a meeting on Monday morning of the coronavirus "war cabinet", his colleagues confirmed.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who has deputised in Johnson's absence, told the BBC on Sunday that his return would be a "boost for the government and a boost for the country".

Raab also claimed the prime minister was "raring to go".

Johnson, 55, was admitted to hospital on April 5 suffering from "persistent symptoms" of the deadly disease.

His condition worsened and he later admitted after being put in intensive care that "things could have gone either way".

He was discharged on April 12 and has been recuperating at his official residence, west of London.

In a video message after leaving hospital, Johnson thanked "Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal" for helping him recover.

On medical advice, he has not been doing official government work during his convalescence but has spoken to Queen Elizabeth and US President Donald Trump on the phone.

The British leader was diagnosed with the virus late last month but initially stayed at Downing Street and was filmed taking part in a round of applause for health workers in the days before he went to hospital.

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News Network
June 6,2020

United Nations, Jun 6: US President Donald Trump’s response to protests against the killing of African-American George Floyd has included language “directly associated with racial segregationists” from America's past, a group of UN human rights experts have said.

There have been widespread protests across the United States as Floyd, 46, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. People from diverse backgrounds have called for justice and have voiced their support to the protests.

In the wake of protests over the killing of Floyd, Trump had tweeted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“The response of the President of the United States to the protests at different junctures has included threatening more state violence using language directly associated with racial segregationists from the nation’s past, who worked hard to deny black people fundamental human rights," a statement issued on Friday by over 60 independent experts of the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council said.

"We are deeply concerned that the nation is on the brink of a militarised response that reenacts the injustices that have driven people to the streets to protest,” it said.

A report in The New York Times had said that the phrase "When the looting starts, the shooting starts” was used by Miami’s former police chief Walter Headley in 1967. Headley had been “long accused of using racist tactics in his force’s patrols of black neighbourhoods,” the NYT had said.

They said the recent killing of Floyd has shocked many in the world, “but it is the lived reality of black people across the United States. The uprising nationally is a protest against systemic racism that produces state-sponsored racial violence, and licenses impunity for this violence.”

They noted that following the recent spate of killings of African-Americans, many in the United States and abroad are finally acknowledging that “the problem is not a few bad apples” but instead the problem is the very way that economic, political and social life are structured in a country that prides itself in liberal democracy, and with the largest economy in the world.

Separately, 28 UN experts called on the US Government to take decisive action to address systemic racism and racial bias in the country's criminal justice system by launching independent investigations and ensuring accountability in all cases of excessive use of force by police.

“Exactly 99 years after the massacre in Tulsa, involving the killing of people of African descent and the massive loss of life, destruction of property and loss of wealth on ‘Black Wall Street’, African Americans continue to experience racial terror in state-sponsored and privately organised violence,” the experts said.

Strongly condemning the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the experts called for systemic reform and justice. “Given the track record of impunity for racial violence of this nature in the United States, Black people have good reason to fear for their lives.”

Taylor, a 25-year-old emergency medical technician was shot in her bed when police raided the wrong house; Arbery, 25, was fatally shot while jogging near his home by three white men who chased and cornered him; and Floyd was accused of using counterfeit currency in a store and died in the street while a white officer knelt on his neck and three others participated and observed.

“The origin story of policing in the United States of America starts with slave patrols and social control, where human property of enslavers was ‘protected’ with violence and impunity against people of African descent. In the US, this legacy of racial terror remains evident in modern-day policing,” the experts said.

The experts also raised concern about the police response to demonstrations in several US cities, termed by some the ‘Fed Up-rising’, that have been marked by violence, arbitrary arrest, militarisation and the detention of thousands of protesters. Reporters of colour have been targeted and detained, and some journalists have faced violence and harassment.

“Statements from the US Government inciting and threatening violence against protesters stand in stark contrast to calls for leniency and understanding which the Government had issued in the wake of largely white protests against COVID-19 restrictions on services like barbershops, salons, and spas,” the experts said.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Washington, Mar 31: The United States has performed over one million coronavirus tests so far, said President Donald Trump on Monday.

"Today, we reached a historic milestone in our war against coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have now been tested, more than any other country by far, not even close," Trump said during a press briefing.

US Health Secretary Alex Azar said that approximately 100,000 samples are tested for coronavirus daily.

The number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases within the United States surpassed 150,000 and the death toll has reached 2828, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

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