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 12,2020

May 12: A Madhya Pradesh Police sub-inspector was fined Rs 5,000 after he performed a daredevil act of balancing himself on two moving cars, copying the famous stunt from Ajay Devgn-starrer 'Singham'.

Manoj Yadav, the in-charge of Narsinghgarh police post in Damoh district, was also warned against any such daredevilry in future, police sources said on Monday.

Sporting shades as the hero of the cop drama film and wearing his police uniform, Yadav got the entire episode video-graphed, they said.

As the video of the stunt went viral on social media, senior police officials took serious note of it as it will send wrong signals to youngsters, the sources said.

Inspector General, Sagar range, Anil Sharma directed Damoh Superintendent of Police Hemant Chauhan to probe the matter.

After an investigation, Chauhan imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the sub-inspector and warned him not to repeat such mistakes.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Tamil Nadu, Jul 12: An alleged attempt by a 19-year-old man to "open a branch of the State Bank of India" at Panruti near Tamil Nadu was scuttled and he was arrested for forgery, police said on Saturday.

The man, son of retired SBI employees, had readied fake seals and challans of the public sector lender, and had other paraphernalia like a cash counting machine needed "to run a bank branch," on an upper floor of his residence at Panruti, about 25 km from Tamil Nadu.

He had not, however, put up any signboard. The SBI Panruti branch manager lodged a complaint with police seeking action following a tip-off by a customer that the man was "opening an SBI branch and has challans as well."

A printer who printed the challans and another who had made fake seals were held for similar offences and abetment.

They were produced before a magistrate court and enlarged on bail.

Asked if the man had cheated people by soliciting deposits or facilitating loans, Panruti police inspector K Ambethkar said, "no..we have not received any such complaint so far."

The man's late father had worked for SBI and his mother had retired from the same bank some time back, he said.

To a question, the police inspector said the man's mother, who has mobility issues, and another woman a relative living in the same house had no clue about his "idea."

Investigations revealed that he aspired to work for a bank and since he had closely watched banking operations for long he was "very knowledgeable" about it.

On the suspected motive, he said several of his replies were incomprehensible, childish, and strange notwithstanding his excellent understanding of the banking processes.

"He even calmly told us that he awaited approval from Mumbai to open the (SBI) branch and that he was about to put up a signboard," the inspector said, adding that the man had tried unsuccessfully to get employment on compassionate grounds in the SBI following the death of his father in harness.

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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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