Adnan murder: Four acquitted in case linked to Orkut

January 30, 2012

Adnan30Jan

Mumbai, January 30: A Mumbai court has today acquitted four men accused of kidnapping and murdering Mumbai teenager Adnan Patrawala in 2007, who they had allegedly met via social networking site Orkut.


The verdict is being read by the city as a moment of shame for the Mumbai Police, whose lethargic inquiry has belied what experts say was an open-and-shut case.

The court said there was not enough evidence to prove that the arrested men are guilty. A fifth - who is a minor and is being tried separately - is also likely to be declared innocent.

At a press conference today, Adnan's father, Aslam, steered clear of criticizing the police, saying only that he would appeal to a higher court.

"We are satisfied with what the police have done. I don't know what went wrong," he said.

At the court, another father expressed his thanks. "I am relieved that my son is innocent. The way he was trapped anything could have happened to him,'' said Arun Bhatt, whose young son, Ayush, had been in jail for the murder since 2007.

16-year-old Adnan's murder on an August night in 2007 made headlines for many reasons. His alleged killers were young and included two teens. They had befriended the rich Andheri businessman's son on Orkut, hugely popular among teens at the time for social networking. After they kidnapped him, reports on a television channel allegedly triggered panic. And they decided to strangle him.

The court said that forensic and circumstantial evidence was crudely handled by the police so that instead of complimenting each other, the different pieces of information rattled around in a largely incongruous narrative against the accused.

On the evening of August 18, 2007, Adnan took his father's Skoda to meet with his friends at a gaming parlour at a mall in North West Mumbai. The group of five people he was meeting with used to interact with him regularly on Orkut. They had zeroed in on him after scanning the site for other potential victims. According to the police, the men wanted quick money. Some had debts they needed to settle. They drew up a list of people they could kidnap for ransom. Adnan appeared trusting and came from a wealthy family.

The alleged killers, according to the police, offered Adnan a spiked drink and suggested they go for a drive. The next morning, Adnan's father received a call asking for a two-crore ransom. Meanwhile, news of the kidnapping had broken on TV. So Adnan's abductors strangled him, dumped his body in some bushes on Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai, and took local trains home.

The only eyewitness produced by the police was the last person to see Adnan live. He said Adnan's dead body was discovered on August 19. Police records list the next day. Cellphone records for some of those accused of the murder did not include the crucial details of three different calls made to Adnan's father for ransom. The court today also said it was hard to believe the eyewitness' claim that the murder ws planned to the last detail in a busy mall.


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Agencies
June 7,2020

Lucknow, Jun 7: From Anamika Shukla to Anamika Singh and finally Priya. The primary school teacher who was found to be teaching simultaneously in 25 schools, not only has multiple jobs but also multiple identities.

Anamika was arrested on Saturday from Kasganj district when she went to submit her resignation after she was served a show cause notice by the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Anjali Agarwal.

Agarwal informed the police and Anamika was arrested.

According to the Kasganj BSA, Anamika Shukla, originally a resident of Kaimganj in Farukhabad is currently doing her B.Ed from the Raghukul Degree College in Gonda. Her other documents are also from the same college.

During interrogation, Anamika Shukla said that she was actually Anamika Singh but as questioning proceeded, it turned out that she was Priya from Farrukhabad.

She has been booked for cheating and forgery under IPC sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc.) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating).

According to the police, the woman claimed that she had paid Rs five lakh to a Mainpuri-based man to get this job.

She used Anamika Shukla's credentials to get the job while her real name is Priya, daughter of Mahipal, a resident of the Lakhanpur village of the Kayamganj police circle in Farrukhabad district.

Soron station house officer (SHO) Ripudaman Singh said, "During interrogation, the accused initially claimed to be Anamika Singh, daughter of Subhas Singh. However, her documents are in the name of Anamika Shukla, daughter of Subhas Chandra Shukla."

The accused claimed that she paid the hefty amount to Raj, a Mainpuri-based man for the job and was posted in Faridpur Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) since August 2018.

The police are now trying to zero in on the man who got her the job.

The police also believe that it could be possible that multiple candidates used credentials and 'eligibility' of Anamika Shukla - the real one still remains elusive.

According to the Uttar Pradesh government, five more Anamika Shuklas have been found working in KGBVs in Ambedkar Nagar, Baghpat, Aligarh, Saharanpur and Prayagraj districts. She has reportedly drawn a combined salary of Rs one crore in the past one year.

Teachers in KGBV, a residential setup for girls from weaker sections of the society, are appointed on contract and are paid approximately Rs 30,000 per month. Each block in a district has one Kasturba Gandhi school.

Basic Education Minister Satish Dwivedi said that the incident was 'shocking' and the police would unravel the entire racket in the case. "No officer, employee who connived with this teacher in providing her job at KGBV and subsequently hiding it, will be spared," he said.

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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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Agencies
January 21,2020

Tengnoupal, Jan 21: A woman IPS officer has alleged that a rifleman of Assam Rifles physically assaulted and molested her at a check post near Moreh town in Manipur's Tengnoupal district, police said on Tuesday.

Based on a written complaint of the IPS officer, an FIR has been registered against rifleman P K Pandey and a summon has been issued to him to appear before the concerned police station, the police said.

Manipur DGP L M Khaute told reporters on Monday, "We have made contacts with the Assam Rifles authorities. A complaint has been lodged by the officer." In her complaint, the IPS officer said that on reaching Khudengtabi check post on Sunday afternoon one of her escorts, who was not in uniform, told the frisking party of Assam Rifles to register their entry.

Despite showing their identity cards, the rifleman allegedly detained them, she said.

"We offered to search ourselves and the vehicle, but he was not interested", she said.

The rifleman began hitting the official vehicle and "misbehaved, humiliated, harassed and assaulted me and my escort personnel," she alleged.

The IPS officer also alleged that the rifleman molested her and when her escorts tried to intervene, he thrashed them.

She further accused the rifleman of making "sexually coloured" remarks against her, using abusive language and even tried to snatch her phone when she tried to call her senior officers.

The issue was brought under control after the matter was reported to the Brigadier of 26th Assam Rifles and the Major of the D-company of 12th AR, police said.

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