'Seldom came to court': Kathua temple gang-rape victim's kin drop lawyer

Agencies
November 15, 2018

Pathankot, Oct 15: The family of the eight-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Kathua has removed lawyer Deepika Rajawat as their advocate on record, saying she seldom appeared for hearings in the case, officials informed Thursday.

The plea was moved Wednesday by the family before the court of district and sessions judge here which is hearing the case day-to-day following directions from the Supreme Court.

The court has issued a notice to Rajawat, asking her to respond to the plea moved by her clients by November 20, officials said.

The father of the victim, who was identified and produced before the judge by advocate Mubeen Farooky, informed the court that he was withdrawing the agreement given in favour of Rajawat as she seldom appeared during the daily hearings which have been going on for the last five months.

The victim is already being represented by the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The case is being argued by two lawyers from the state and Pathankot District Attorney Jagdishwar Kumar Chopra.

The eight-year-old girl, belonging to a nomadic tribe, was allegedly kidnapped on January 10 and her body was found on January 17. It is alleged that she was gang-raped and later murdered.

The Jammu and Kashmir Crime Branch has arrested eight people, including a juvenile in the case.

The charge sheet has been filed against main accused Sanji Ram and his juvenile nephew, his son Vishal, special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma and friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu. It also names head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta -- who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

The district and sessions court in Pathankot framed charges of rape and murder against seven accused (except the juvenile) in the case on June 8.

Sanji Ram is alleged to have hatched the conspiracy with the other accused of kidnapping the girl as part of a strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area.

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News Network
May 2,2020

New Delhi, May 2: With 2,293 new cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number of cases in a single day, India's COVID-19 tally reached 37,336 on Saturday, including 1,218 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As many as 71 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Out of the total number, 9,951 people have been cured/discharged/migrated.

In the state of Maharashtra, the number of coronavirus positive cases has crossed the 10,000-mark with at least 485 deaths.

The positive cases in Maharashtra has reached 11,506, including 1,879 discharged cases.

After Maharashtra, Gujarat has the most number of COVID-19 cases (4,721). The state has reported 236 deaths, while 735 people have been discharged.

The Centre on Friday extended the ongoing nationwide lockdown for two more weeks with effect from May 4 till May 17 while allowing different sets of relaxations in red, orange and green zones.

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News Network
March 13,2020

New Delhi, Mar 13: Delhi's Tis Hazari Court on Friday sentenced expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others to 10 years imprisonment for the death of Unnao rape survivor's father. Sengar is already serving life imprisonment for raping the minor.

While sentencing them, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said, "There can be no denying that rule of law was broken. Sengar was a public functionary and had to maintain the rule of law. The way the crime has been committed, it does not call for leniency."

Sengar and his brother Atul has been directed to give 10 lakh compensation to family of the victim for loss of their father. "There are four minor children involved, three girls and one boy. They have also been uprooted from native place," the judge said.

Seven people, including Sengar, his brother and two police personnel, were held guilty for culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy, earlier this month.

The case pertains to the death of rape survivor's father in custody on April 9, 2018. It was alleged that he was assaulted following a quarrel with some of the accused in the case.

He was taken to the police station and then framed for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm. Pursuant to this, he was sent to custodial remand, during which he died.

The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court's directions in August last year. Both the death and illegal firearm case was later clubbed by the court.

During the arguments on sentencing on March 12, Sengar had told the court that he should be "hanged and acid poured into his eyes if he has done anything wrong".

The former MLA had also raped the daughter of the deceased in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district and was sent to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life", last year.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

Kochi, Jan 11: Two of the four illegal apartment complexes were brought down by controlled implosion here on Saturday.

However, the other two apartments-- Golden Kayaloram and Jain Coral-- will be demolished on Sunday.

The demolition of the first building Holy Faith H2O, slated to be carried out at 11 am, was delayed by 18 minutes while the twin towers of Alfa Serene, which is surrounded by 36 houses, were brought down at 11.43 am.

As per authorities, as many as 343 kgs of explosives were used for the demolition of twin towers of Alfa Serene, which had 80 apartments and 16 floors each.

Section 144 has been imposed within a 200-metre radius of the complexes on Saturday and Sunday. Moreover, traffic has been halted on land, water and air in the evacuation zone during the process.

There are concerns that some concrete pieces of the second tower of the building may have fallen into the lake nearby. It is yet to be estimated if the debris or concrete pieces have affected the buildings nearby.

The four apartment complexes in Maradu were ordered to be demolished by the Supreme Court for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.

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