Woman held for smuggling in memory cards

January 6, 2012

smugler

Bangalore, January 6: A 40-year-old woman was held on Thursday morning for smuggling in 31,520 micro-secure digital chips from Hong Kong.

Officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), Customs, at Bangalore International Airport (BIA) caught Rosy Bhatia from Delhi red-handed as she tried to walk away with the chips worth Rs 63.04 lakh, packed in 53 polythene pouches and concealed in her stockings, hidden under a salwar suit.

The cards, bearing the “Made in Taiwan” tag, were being smuggled into the country.

The customs sleuths intercepted her after she alighted from a Dragon Airways aircraft from Hong Kong around 2 am and immediately arrested her for offences under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Rosy Bhatia, according to a senior AIU official, was carrying approximately 31,520 such cards with the capacity of two gigabytes on her.

The officials, following a tip-off, waited for Rosy Bhatia to arrive and watched her moves. She passed through the green channel without declaring the goods and the value in the customs declaration slip. Questioned by the Customs, she simply said she had nothing to declare.

“She was a smart woman. She had packed these chips in 53 small polythene pouches which were concealed in her stockings, over which she was wearing a salwar,” said an official at the airport.

The AIU team had received specific intelligence from their Delhi counterparts that she would be smuggling in memory cards into the country.

“It was not viable to wait until she reached Delhi although she had an early morning flight to Delhi today (Thursday). There were chances of her disposing the smuggled articles in Bangalore, making it difficult to trace,” the official explained.

Initial interrogation revealed that this was the first time she was travelling through Bangalore. Besides, she had no history (cases registered) against her for smuggling.

“It is very difficult to believe that she was smuggling for the first time. The trade has been going on for sometime,” the official said. Her passport revealed that she had been to Hong Kong over 10 times in the last six months and the duration of her stay was between a day and two on most occasions.

“She would travel to Hong Kong and other places in South-East Asia on the excuse of buying textile goods to sell in India,” another official said.

Rosy Bhatia was produced before a local court here and was granted conditional bail.

Stating that there is a larger network operating in the country, officials said last month a passenger was caught at Kolkata airport, travelling from the same country and smuggling the same good, using the same modus operandi.

Also, a similar consignment was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence here about six weeks ago, officials said.

They said there was a huge demand for such products in the country. “Our telecom market is growing. With electronic goods like this attracting 27-30 per cent in duties, smuggling them is very lucrative,” the official said.

Gaffar Market in Delhi, National Market and SP? Road in Bangalore, Heera Panna in Mumbai, Fancy Market in Kolkata and similar places in other key cities of the country play home to several shops that sell these products at discounted rates, hurting the licensed retail outlets.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: A 20-year-old man set his motorcycle on fire after he was challaned by the traffic police in south Delhi's Greater Kailash area on Wednesday, police said.

Vikas, a resident of Sangam Vihar, was challaned by the traffic police for riding the motorcycle without helmet, a senior police official said.

The traffic police challaned him and impounded the motorcycle, following which Vikas set the bike on fire, the officer said.

A case has been registered and the accused arrested, the officer added.

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News Network
February 10,2020

New Delhi, Feb 10: A 44-year-old man allegedly killed his daughter and son before ending his life by jumping in front of a Delhi metro train at Haiderpur Badli Mor station on Sunday, police said.

No suicide note has been recovered, but police claimed that the man, Madhur Malani, was depressed since his sandpaper-manufacturing factory was closed some six months ago due to financial crunch leaving him jobless. Madhur's parents had been supporting his family financially since then.

He used to stay with his wife Rupali, daughter Samiksha (14) and six-year-old son Shraiyans at a rented house in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh area, they said.

Rupali was not at home when Madhur strangled their children. He might have also smothered their daughter but the exact cause of death would be ascertained only after the post-mortem reports arrive, a police official said.

After killing his two children, he jumped in front of an approaching train at Haiderpur Badli Mor Metro station following which he was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him 'brought dead', the official said.

Metro services on the Yellow Line were briefly delayed due to the incident.

"Delay in services from Samaypur Badli to GTB Nagar due to a passenger on track at Haiderpur Badli Mor," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted.

After about 15 minutes, it again tweeted that normal services have been restored. The Delhi Metro's Yellow Line connects Samaypur Badli in Delhi to HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon.

The suicide was reported to the police around 5.40 pm while the Shalimar Bagh Police station received a call about the killings around 6.50 pm.

On reaching the house, police found bodies of the children lying in beds in two rooms. During enquiry, it was learnt that their father has left the house, a senior police officer said.

While police were trying to trace Madhur, they learnt about a suicide at the metro station. On verifying the details, it surfaced that Madhur committed suicide after killing his children, the officer said.

Rupali told police that she had gone to a nearby market around 3 pm and on returning home she found the bodies of her children while her husband was missing.

A case under relevant sections of the IPC has been registered and investigation was underway, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijayanta Arya said.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

New Delhi, May 26: A massive fire broke out on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday in the slums of the Tughlaqabad area in south east Delhi in which over 250 shanties were gutted, however, no one was injured, fire officials said.

Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer, told IANS, "We came to know about the fire in the slums around 12.15 a.m. following which 28 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. And the fire was brought under control by 4 a.m."

He said, the Tughalaqbad slums have over 500 shanties, out of which over 250 have been destroyed in the fire.

He said, it took time for the fire tenders to reach the spot as it was on the hills, but the fire was doused within four hours and by 8 a.m. cooling off procedure has also been completed.

When asked if there is any casualty in the incident, he said, "No injury or casualty has been reported."

He also said that as of now the actual reason for the fire is not known. "But we are trying to find out the reason of the fire," Garg added.

South East Deputy Commissioner of Police R.P. Meena said, "In the night it seemed that almost 500 shanties were gutted. However, in the morning it became clear that only 250 shanties have been gutted in fire."

He said, the South East district police after receiving the call also rushed the ambulances and the local police team in the area for rescue operation. Meena further said that very few people were residing in the shanties, and the people came out of their shanties after the fire broke out in one of them.

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