Ex-army officer gets life term for killing Chennai boy

April 20, 2012
chennai-dilshan

Chennai, April 20: Retired army officer K. Ramaraj was sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast track court here Friday for last year's killing of a 13-year-old boy who had entered his residential premises to pick almonds.

The court also levied a fine of Rs.60,000 on Lt. Col. (retd) Ramaraj, 50, of which Rs.50,000 has to be given to the family of the victim, K. Dilshan, said a prosecution lawyer.

The judge also found Ramaraj guilty under two sections of the Arms Act and awarded him prison terms of three years and one year each, besides a fine of Rs.10,000.

All the sentences would run concurrently.The shooting of the boy for trespassing raised a nationwide uproar, with people demanding exemplary punishment for the killer.


Reacting to the judgment, Dilshan's mother K. Kalaivani told reporters assembled at the court: "I am happy. It is a good judgment. This will be a lesson to everybody. Such incidents should not happen to anyone, anywhere in the world."

A prosecution lawyer told reporters that the hearing by the court began in September and ended April 11. Around 55 witnesses were examined by the court. The police had submitted 45 exhibits and 13 material objects, besides the murder weapon.

Tamil Nadu Police cracked the case within a week of the killing of the boy.

According to police, Ramaraj was irritated by the boy trespassing into residential premises housing retired and serving army officials to pick up almond nuts.


Police had charged that Dilshan was shot by Ramaraj from the balcony of his residence July 3 afternoon when the boy and his friends residing nearby entered the residential campus to pluck almonds.

Dilshan was fatally wounded and succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Ramaraj has three sons serving in the army.

The murder investigation was taken over by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID). Police had initially suspected some other official but later ruled out his involvement and zeroed in on Ramaraj.

According to police, Ramaraj, who retired from service last year, had acquired a 0.30 calibre Springfield rifle in 2004 when he was posted in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. The gun licence had expired and Ramaraj had applied for licence renewal.

The army officers here were not aware that Ramaraj was in possession of a rifle. Ramaraj had later thrown the rifle in Cooum river here. It was recovered by police.

According to the CB-CID, extensive searches were carried out at the place of shooting and a bullet component was recovered and sent for ballistic tests to ascertain the type of weapon used.

Initially, it was thought that three boys, including Dilshan, had entered the campus. But the investigation established the presence of a fourth boy, who gave information about the probable involvement of Ramaraj in the shooting.Twelve probe teams were constituted to crack the case.


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News Network
May 9,2020

Shillong, May 9: The poisonous mushrooms that killed six people at a remote village in Meghalaya's West Jaintia Hills district have been identified as Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the 'Death Cap', a senior official said on Saturday.

Six people, including a 14-year-old girl, of Lamin village along the India-Bangladesh border in Amlarem civil sub-division died after consuming wild mushrooms they collected from a nearby forest late last month.

The wild mushroom has been identified as Amanita phalloides and is hepatotoxic as it directly affects the liver, state Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told PTI.

He said it has been established after an investigation that the cause of the deaths was the poisonous mushrooms.

At least 18 persons from three families were taken ill after consuming the mushrooms.

The symptoms after consuming the poisonous fungus include vomiting, headache and unconsciousness, the senior doctor said.

Most of those taken ill, including a pregnant woman, have already recovered and gone home. Therefore, people can survive as it depends on the amount of poison that you have consumed. Only one person was unaffected, maybe he did not consume much, he said.

Three people are still undergoing treatment and are recovering. Two of them are at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) and one in Woodland Hospital, Dr War said.

He said the health department can only appeal to the people, especially those in the rural areas, to refrain from eating wild mushrooms, while the horticulture department should take measures to create awareness.

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News Network
January 17,2020

Jan 17: Police have busted a "high- profile" sex racket operating in a three-star hotel in suburban Andheri and arrested a 29-year-old woman and rescued three female artists, including a minor, an official said on Thursday.

The Social Service (SS) branch of the city police conducted the raid at the hotel at Andheri East on Thursday, the official said.

"During the raid, three females, including a minor, were found to have been forced into prostitution. They were rescued and a woman, identified as Priya Sharma, who was operating the racket, was arrested," he said.

"Sharma was running tours and travel agency in Kandivali East. However, she was involved in immoral activities," senior inspector of SS branch, Sandesh Revale, said.

While one of the rescued is a woman actor and singer, who has worked in 'Savdhaan India' TV crime show, he said, another one has worked in a Marathi movie and serials.

The minor has worked in a web series, Revale added.

The offence was being registered against Sharma, he said.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Kota (Rajasthan), Jun 6: A 14-year-old boy allegedly hanged himself to death on early Saturday morning shortly after he stopped playing PUBG throughout the night and went to sleep, said police. 

Railway Colony police station’s in-charge Hansraj Meena said the boy, a class 9 student and son of an Army man, was found hanging from the grill of the ventilator in his bedroom on early Saturday morning. 

Meena said according to the boy’s family members, the boy had downloaded the gaming programme on his mother’s mobile phone only three days back but had been playing the game virtually continuously for the last three days. 

He kept on playing the game till 3 am in a room in which his brother was studying, said Meena, adding the boy went to adjoining to sleep after that. His body was found hanging from the ventilator’s grill in the morning, he said, adding the boy was rushed to MBS Hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”. 

No suicide note was recovered in the case, the SHO said. The boy lived in Gandhi Colony in the city along with his mother and brother, while his father, a Tamil Nadu native and Army man, is currently posted in Arunachal Pradesh. The boy’s body has been kept in hospital’s morgue for the postmortem, the SHO said.

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