Australian teen gets 13 years in jail for Nitin Garg murder

December 22, 2011

Melbourne, December 22: An Australian court on Thursday sentenced a Melbourne teenager to 13 years in jail for murdering Indian student Nitin Garg, a crime which outraged public opinion in India and put the bilateral relations under stress.

GARG

Nitin Garg

The teenager, whose identity has not been revealed as he is a minor, had pleaded guilty in April to one count of murder and one count of attempted armed robbery in the killing of 21-year-old Garg.

Garg, who migrated from Punjab, was fatally stabbed in the abdomen by assailants in Cruickshank Park in Melbourne’s Yarraville while on his way to work in January 2010.

Justice Paul Coghlan of the Victoria State Supreme Court sentenced the teenager to 13 years in jail, with a non-parole period of eight years, Australian news agency AAP reported.

Justice Coghlan said the killing was awful and tragic.

He, however, said it was a crime of opportunity rather than race.

He found the task of sentencing a very difficult one, the judge said. “In circumstances such as these there are just no winners.”

The judge said one able young man was dead, while the teenager’s life had changed forever.

“Although this was a very serious crime, it was committed spontaneously,” he said, adding, “It should be noted, however, that you chose to arm yourself and did a great deal to avoid apprehension for your crime.”

The accused was 15 and a half when he stabbed Garg, an accounts graduate.

The murder, which followed a series of attacks on Indians, made international headlines and provoked fear among Indian students in Australia.

Justice Coghlan said for “reasons never explained” the accused teenager left the house with a folding knife in his pocket.

The judge said that the boys were in the park when Garg walked past on his way to work at the Yarraville Hungry Jack’s restaurant on the corner of Geelong and Somerville roads and was talking on his phone.

The boy’s friend said “that bloke’s phone looks nice” so the boy took his long-sleeve jumper off and wrapped it over his face saying he was going to “roll” Garg.

He held the knife up to Garg and demanded his phone.

Justice Coghlan said Garg grabbed the boy but the boy stabbed him in the abdomen.

Garg ran to his workplace where he collapsed and he died in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in the early hours of the following morning.

Justice Coghlan said that after the attack the boy went home and watched a movie and found out the following day that Garg had died.

He said, however, that it had taken some time for the boy to speak to police.

He said the boy’s friend had made a statement to police last May implicating both of them in the crime and the boy was not charged until June. He has been in custody ever since.

Justice Coghlan said he accepted the boy was remorseful and had no intention to kill when he went to the park.

He said Garg was “an innocent and random victim” and it was his presence in the park, not his race, that led to him being attacked.

The Garg’s stabbing was widely condemned with the Indian government warning it could affect bilateral ties.

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Agencies
January 14,2020

Farukkhabad, Jan 14: In a shocking incident, a new-born baby was mauled to death by a dog inside the operation theatre (OT) of a private hospital in Farukkhabad on Monday.

Family members of the baby boy said that they noticed the hospital staff shooing a dog away from inside the operation theatre and soon after, they were told the baby boy, born just two hours ago, was dead.

The family members said that they found the baby's body on the floor and it had deep gashes around the neck and other parts of the body.

District magistrate Manvendra Singh has ordered an FIR and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Chandra Shekhar said the hospital has been sealed and an inquiry ordered into the incident.

Sources said that the hospital where the incident took place was unregistered and was being run adjacent to a government hospital.

According to the FIR lodged with Sadar Kotwali police, the infant's father Ravi Kumar said he had admitted his wife Kanchan in the hospital on Monday and she was taken for a C-section to the operation theatre.

After the delivery, Kanchan was shifted to the ward but the family was told that the baby would be shifted later.

An hour later, the family was informed that the baby had died.

The family members then saw the hospital staff trying to chase a dog out of the operation theatre.

The family members forced their way into the operation theatre and found the infant lying on the floor with several injuries on the neck.

The police said that the baby's body has been preserved for examination and post mortem.

The FIR has been registered against Dr Mohit Gupta, and some of the staff members who were present during the delivery.

The hospital owner, Vijay Patel, however, feigned complete ignorance about the incident and said that he had been told that the baby was born dead.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Khammam, Jun 29: In an outrageous incident, some youths beat up a monkey and strung it up on a tree to death while also releasing dogs to attack it in Ammapalem village in Telangana's Khammam district.

A video of the heinous incident of animal cruelty has surfaced on social media, in which the monkey is seen hanging by a rope from a tree, desperately flailing its limbs while a couple of dogs attempt to pounce on and torment the hapless simian. After a while, several men are seen in the video approaching the animal with long sticks.

Forest officials have charged one villager Venkateshwar Rao under Wildlife Protection Act along with the other accused and arrested them. They were released on bail on Saturday and are set to be summoned for questioning by forest officials.

Rao had spotted the monkey, which had entered his residence apparently in search of food and beat it with a stick and hung it from a tree with the help of his friend.

In the video of the incident, Rao could also be seen instructing his pet dogs to bite the monkey, which was fighting for its life.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Nagpur, July 21: In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy allegedly killed self in Maharashtra's Nagpur city after being reprimanded by his mother for buying a samosa, police said on Tuesday.

Veeru Natthu Sahu was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in Ganga Nagar in Gittikhadan area on Sunday night, an official said.

The deceased boy's family was struggling to make ends meet after their small business was hit because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The Class 7 student had taken Rs 10 from home without asking his mother and bought a samosa, which was then eaten by his elder brother, the official said.

The boy's mother scolded him for taking money without her permission and asked him to get the snack for himself, following which the distraught minor allegedly went into the kitchen and hanged himself using a saree, he said.

The Gittikhadan police have registered a case of accidental death in this regard, the official added.

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