Elderly woman falls for conman's 'love', loses Rs 94 lakh

September 8, 2016

Pune, Sep 8: If you think something is too good to be true, chances are that it probably is. A 64-year-old widow from the city learnt this lesson the hard way recently.

lovemoneyThe Chatushrungi police have booked a person named Harley Benson, who claimed to be from London, for allegedly duping the elderly woman of Rs 94.5 lakh after promising to marry her. The woman lodged a police complaint on Tuesday.

The suspect had befriended the woman, a resident of Model Colony, off Fergusson College Road on Facebook. Benson and she exchanged cellphone numbers and began sending SMSs and Whatsapp messages to each other in May 2016.

According to police, he professed his love for her a couple of months ago and promised to marry her. Benson won her confidence by claiming that he was willing to relocate to India.

As the woman's daughter is based in the US and her husband died in 2014, she lives alone in the city, police inspector U B Shingade said.

The woman was earlier employed as a teacher in a prominent research institute of the Union government and has now retired. police said.

On July 27 this year, Benson called her up and told her that he was shifting to Pune and was carrying gold and diamonds worth 95,000.

After a couple of days, he called her up again claiming that Indian customs officials had caught him at the Delhi airport and were demanding a fine for the gold and diamonds.

Benson claimed that he was not carrying a large amount of money and requested her to pay the fine.

The complaint said that Benson provided her a few bank account numbers and requested her to deposit money in them. The woman deposited Rs 94.5 lakh in the account numbers provided by him over some period. After receiving the money, he switched off his cellphone number.

Police said that the woman sold a piece of land to pay the money. Police have obtained details of the bank accounts and have launched a manhunt to trace the suspect.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Hyderabad, MAY 28: A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into a newly drilled open borewell in Telangana's Medak district was found dead in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The kid's body was retrieved at around 4 am after a nearly 10 hours' long rescue operation involving different agencies, they said.

"He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply, " Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti told PTI.

The boy had accidentally slipped into the 120- feet borewell at around 5 pm on Wednesday in an agricultural field located in Papannapet mandal of the district when he was walking with his grandfather and father, police earlier said.

As part of rescue efforts, a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines and oxygen was supplied into it, but the efforts went in vain as the boy's body was found stuck at a depth of around 25 feet, the police said.

Apart from the police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were also involved in the rescue operation.

The borewell into which the child fell was one among the three dug by the family since Tuesday night to try and find water for their fields. But none of them yielded any water, police had said.

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Agencies
May 24,2020

Bijnor, May 24: A man died after he was attacked by his cousins, allegedly for not getting tested for the Coronavirus after his return from Delhi.

The incident took place in Malakpur village in Bijnor district.

Manjeet Singh (23) died on Friday during treatment in Meerut.

A FIR has now been registered against Manjeet's cousins, Kapil and Manoj, their mother Puniya and Manoj's wife Dolly at the Nahtaur police station on a complaint filed by the father of the deceased Kalyan Singh on Sunday.
SHO, Nahtaur police station, Satya Prakash Singh said that no arrests have been made yet.

According to reports, Manjeet died due to head injuries.
His sample was not collected for a Coronavirus test by doctors during treatment.
Additional SP, Bijnor, Sanjay Kumar said, he underwent thermal screening when he reached Bijnor on May 19 from Delhi. The report was negative so his sample was not collected.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath performs 'rudrabhishek' for safety from COVID-19
SHO Satya Prakash Singh said, "Since his return, Kapil and Manoj were regularly asking Manjeet to get his test done. On Thursday, the cousins again asked Manjeet to get his test done after which an argument ensued between them."

"The accused brought sticks and started hitting Manjeet. He suffered injuries on the head and shoulder. When Manjeet fell unconscious, he was rushed to government hospital by his parents where he succumbed to injuries a day later," said Singh.

Chief Medical Officer, Bijnor, Dr Vijay Yadav said he has "no information" about the matter.

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News Network
April 24,2020

Thane, Apr 24: A 34-year-old man was allegedly attacked on suspicion of being a COVID-19 patient and died after falling into a gutter during the assault in Kalyan town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Wednesday morning, when Ganesh Gupta had stepped out of his home to purchase some essentials amid the COVID-19 lockdown, an official said.

On noticing some policemen manning the street, the victim took an alternate route, where a few passersby assaulted him after he coughed while walking, he said.

The men suspected him of being a COVID-19 patient and attacked him, causing him to fall into a gutter and die, the official said.

The deceased's body was sent for post-mortem and a case of accidental death has been registered as of now, the station house officer of the Khadakpada police station said.

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