4 held on charges of raping American tourist in Delhi

December 27, 2016

New Delhi, Dec 27: Four people, including a tour guide and a bell boy of a five-star hotel in Connaught Place, were arrested on Monday for allegedly raping an American tourist in April. The 25-year-old rape survivor, who made a complaint in October, returned to India recently to depose before a magistrate and identify the accused.

rapedIn her statement, the woman said five people drugged and sexually assaulted her inside her hotel room in CP soon after she checked in. She left India after the incident and said it was only towards the end of July that she started to remember what had happened to her. "I started to get panic attacks and nightmares — I still get them — after which I told... my mom," she said in her statement, which has been incorporated in the FIR.

Those arrested so far are tourist guide Aniruddha Singh, hotel staffer Vivek, driver Om Prakash and cleaner Maqsood Khan. Delhi Police spokesperson Depender Pathak said they would seek custody of the accused to gather further evidence and establish the identity of the fifth accused.

Police sources said the four were not arrested earlier as there was no video or eyewitness evidence. The men were identified and questioned first on December 5. All four claimed they were being falsely implicated, saying the woman had travelled with them to the remaining destinations on her package tour without raising an alarm and even rated them positively in the feedback forms. "They also showed photographs in which her...facial expression did not indicate that she was under stress," a police officer said. However cops seized their passports and mobile phones for further investigations.

It was the woman's statement before a magistrate (under section 164 of CrPC) that nailed their involvement and made the arrests possible, police sources said. The survivor, in her statement, said she had come to India on a group tour of 25-30 people organised by a Pennsylvaniabased firm. Her ordeal began soon after she checked into the five-star hotel in CP.

"I landed in Delhi on April 8. Gate guy Mr Singh (accused 2) explained to us the tour plan and gave keys to our rooms. I was escorted to the room by a hotel employee (accused 1)... I asked him for a power adaptor for my cellphone which he brought in 10-15 minutes and left. He again came with a water bottle, which I never asked for, and left. I had the water and immediately felt very sleepy. I believe there was something in it which made me sleepy. I remember some people in the room and asked who it was. They left screaming in their local language. I went to sleep again. Next, I saw accused 1 touching me," she said in her statement.

"Accused 1 had then sexually assaulted me. I was not able to find out what was happening to me maybe due to the drugs, but I could figure out that accused 2 was standing next to me too and had started to undress himself. I had started to scream for help but accused 2 hit me on my face. I started to bang my hand against the wall hoping that some one in the next room might come for help, accused 2 then sexually assaulted me as well." She said during the assault, the two accused threatened to teach her a lesson for travelling to India alone.

The woman returned home soon after and after a few months, told her mother about the incident. "I contacted a non-profit organisation in the US who in turn contacted the tour operator and the hotel but did not get any assistance from them. Then, the organisation gave a complaint to the Delhi Police commissioner on October 5 via email and received a reply on October 17," the woman said.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Panipat, Mar 3: A 22-year-old man was charred to death after he came in contact with a live electricity wire while posing for a TikTok video near the Matlaudha railway station here, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday evening when Vikas, a resident of Dharamgarh village, climbed a pole over which the wire was passing and posed for the video, police said.

His three friends were standing below when the accident took place.

Vikas came in contact with the wire carrying 25,000 volts current and was burnt, police said.

Police have sent the body for a post-mortem and started investigation into the matter.

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Agencies
June 7,2020

Behrampur, Jun 7: A migrant labourer spent two days in jungle after allegedly being denied entry to a quarantine centre and his village in Behrampur.

According to a local from the village, no one helped the labourer. "He came from Chennai. He went to the police and block office but no one helped. Then, he went to the jungle."

Later, the police took him to the quarantine centre.

As per the Union Health Ministry, there are 2,608 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Odisha, including 996 active cases, 1,604 recovered/discharged/migrated and 8 deaths.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Mumbai, Feb 10: Ankita Pisudde, a resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, was critical after sustaining 40% burns on February 3 when she was set afire, allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on her way to college.

The 25-year-old woman lecturer who was set on fire by a stalker in Maharashtra’s Wardha district last week died at a hospital in Nagpur on Monday morning, a police official said.

Ankita Pisudde, resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, had been critical after sustaining 35 to 40% “grade III” burns on February 3 when she was set afire allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on way to her college, they said.

She was undergoing treatment at the Orange City Hospital & Research Centre here, located around 75 km from Wardha.

“Doctors at the hospital declared her dead at 6.55 a.m. today,” Hinganghat’s police inspector Satyaveer Bandiwar said.

The woman sustained deep burn injuries on scalp, face, right upper limb, left hand, upper back, neck and eyes along with severe inhalational injuries, the hospital said in a medical bulletin on Monday.

She died of “septicemic shock” after suffering from deep dermal burns along with severe inhalational injuries, respiratory distress and related complications, it said.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday, her oxygen levels deteriorated inspite of ventilator support, coupled with decreasing urine output and reduction in blood pressure, the hospital said.

As part of immediate resuscitation measures, medicines were escalated to maintain the blood pressure and all feasible steps were taken to improve the oxygen levels in blood, but the patient remained “extremely critical”, it said.

“Around 6.30 a.m., she had bradycardia and inspite of prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient could not be revived and was declared dead at 6.55 a.m.,” it said.

The probable cause of death was “septicemic shock”, the bulletin added.

During her treatment, she underwent tracheostomy (creating an opening in neck to place a tube into the windpipe to allow air to enter the lungs), burn dressings, debridement and escharotomies, the hospital informed.

Debridement is a medical procedure to remove dead, damaged or infected tissue, while escharotomy is a surgical procedure used to treat full-thickness (third-degree) circumferential burns.

The woman’s parents and uncle were kept informed about her deteriorating health condition and death, the hospital said, adding that the body was later handed over to police for postmortem and other formalities.

After the woman’s condition deteriorated, the hospital informed about her critical status to Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Wardha Guardian Minister Sunil Kedar, Nagpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar and Wardha Superintendent of Police Basavraj Teli.

Heavy security was deployed in Hinganghat to avoid any law and order problem following her death, the police said.

Several locals, mostly women and college students, took out a march in Wardha city last Thursday, demanding death penalty for the accused.

Home Minister Deshmukh visited the hospital on Tuesday and announced that the accused’s trial would be fast-tracked.

The State government last week flew Navi Mumbai-based National Burns Centre director Sunil Keswani to Nagpur to supervise the woman’s treatment.

It has also appointed well-known lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case.

According to the victim’s relatives, Nagrale, who was arrested within hours of the incident on February 3, had been harassing her for quite some time.

Nagrale and the woman were friends till two years ago when she severed ties with him due to his “irrational behaviour”, the police earlier said.

A special team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Trupti Jadhav will probe the case, the Wardha Police said last week.

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