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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News Network
March 18,2020

Jaipur, Mar 18: Initially buried as per Islamic traditions, an unidentified man's body was exhumed and later cremated after he was found to be a Hindu in Rajasthan's Tonk district, police said.

The family members identified the body of Mahaveer Sahu on Tuesday, a day after the burial, as they stumbled upon photos of the deceased that had circulated on social media.

The man was brought to a government hospital by locals in an unconscious state on March 12 and he died on March 13, according to Purani Tonk police station SHO Shivlal.

The man was said to be a liquor addict and was found unconscious on the road, he added.

The body was kept at the mortuary for three days awaiting identification. Despite efforts to trace the next of kin, the identity could not be ascertained and members of Hindu and Muslim communities were brought in to take a decision, Shivlal said.

The community leaders presumed that he was a Muslim after examining the body and the burial took place as per Islamic funeral traditions on Monday, he added.

Meanwhile, Sahu's family members saw the photo of his body that had circulated on a WhatsAapp group and identified him later that day. They rushed to the hospital and then to the police station in the night where they were informed that the body had been buried.

“The body was exhumed with permission from the sub-divisional magistrate on Tuesday and handed over to the family members after proper identification. Members of the Muslim community led by an Imam were also present and gave in writing that they have no objection,” Shivlal said.

The body was later cremated by his family members.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Lucknow, May 1: Six members of a family were allegedly hacked to death by another family member over a property dispute in Gudauli village in the Banthra area on the outskirts of the city on Thursday, police said.

The accused, Ajay Singh (26), went to the local police station after committing the crime and surrendered, they added.

Singh allegedly had a heated argument with the family members over a property and attacked them with a sharp-edged weapon, the police said.

The accused allegedly killed his mother, father, elder brother, his wife and two children -- a son and a daughter -- they added.

The victims were identified as Amar (60), Ramsakhi (55), Arun (40), Ramdulari (35), Saurabh (7) and Sarika (2).

When asked, Commissioner of Police Sujeet Pandey said six members of a family were killed and the accused surrendered before the police.

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News Network
July 15,2020

Mumbai, Jul 15: A domestic row between a couple spilled onto road when a woman stopped her husbands car and climbed on its bonnet, briefly disrupting traffic on the busy Pedder Road in South Mumbai, police said on Wednesday.

The incident, which took place on Saturday evening, was recorded by some passersby on their mobile phones and its videos are making rounds on social media.

The wife chased the husband's SUV (sports utility vehicle) in her car after she spotted another woman seated next to him in his vehicle.

As her husband's SUV stopped at the Pedder Road signal, the wife get down from her car, rushed towards his four-wheeler and started shouting at him, a police official said.

In the video, the woman is seen climbing the bonnet of the SUV, removing her footwear and hitting the vehicle's windshield with it. She is also seen asking the husband's co- passenger to get out of the SUV and shouting for police help.

As she stopped her car in the middle of the busy road, one lane got blocked for some time and the traffic police personnel present there tried to ensure movement of other vehicles, the official said.

After sometime, the traffic police asked the couple to take their cars near the footpath.

By that time, the husband stepped out of his SUV, following which the wife ran towards him and caught him. She even kicked him a couple of times and took him to her car, the video shows.

She then again ran towards her husband's SUV, which was parked a few metres away. She opened its driver-side door and lunged at the woman seated in the vehicle, but was stopped by some people who had gathered at the spot, the police official said.

Later, the couple and their cars were taken to Gamdevi police station, where the wife refused to lodge a complaint against her husband.

A fine was imposed on her for traffic rules violation and abandoning her car in the middle of the road, which caused disruption of vehicular movement, the official said.

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