Kerala HC denies anticipatory bail to 2 church priests

Agencies
July 4, 2018

Kochi, Jul 4: The Kerala High Court today declined to grant two church priests any interim protection from arrest over sexual assault charges and adjourned the hearing on their anticipatory bail pleas till Monday.

Sony Varghese, 42, and Job Mathew, 40, of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, moved the anticipatory bail pleas in the high court apprehending arrest in the case.

Adjourning the case to Monday, Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan declined their pleas not to arrest them till further hearing of the case.

The court also directed police to produce the complaint of sexual harassment of the woman filed by her husband and other documents related to the case.

Varghese and Mathew moved the high court a day after the Crime Branch wing of Kerala Police slapped rape charges against four of the five Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church priests, including them, in the case.

The priests, in separate, but identical pleas, rejected the woman's allegations that they had sexually assaulted her.

They alleged that the crime was registered against them "solely at the instance of the political pressure exerted by certain vested interests to derive political mileage".

Both claimed that even if the charges by the alleged victim in their entirety were assumed to be correct, without them admitting, the same does not make out an offence under Section 376 of IPC.

They contended that the entire allegation revealed that sexual intercourse, if any, was fully consensual.

Meanwhile, Crime Branch Inspector General S Sreejith, who is heading the probe, visited the headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kottayam and discussed case-related matters with its supreme head, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.

Sreejith said the head priest told him to take all legal steps correctly in the case.

He also offered all help to police in the probe.

The crime branch had yesterday registered an FIR and slapped rape charges against the priests after recording the woman's statement.

Last month, the man from Pathanamthitta district accused the five priests of using his wife's secret confession to blackmail and sexually abuse her.

The incident came to light after an audio clip containing the man's purported conversation with a church official alleging sexual abuse of his wife by the priests was widely circulated on social media.

The investigation team had recorded the statement of the victim's husband earlier.

The man had reportedly handed over copies of evidence against the priests to the crime branch team.

A Crime Branch probe was ordered into the case last week by state police chief Loknath Behara.

Veteran CPI(M) leader and chairman of the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission V S Achuthanandan and the National Commission for Women had written to Behara, demanding a probe into the charges.

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News Network
July 9,2020

Etawah, Jul 9: Another aide of the Kanpur encounter accused Vikas Dubey, Bahua Dubey, died in an encounter with the police, here on Thursday.

"Today at around 4.30 AM, in an encounter with the Etawah Police, one person has died. from him, a rifle and a pistol too has been recovered. When we shared the information with the Kanpur Police, they identified him as Bahua Dubey," said SSP Etawah Akash Tomar.

"He was involved in the Kanpur encounter alongside Vikas Dubey and there was a bounty of Rs 50,000 on him," he added.

"Around 3 AM on the highway near Mahewa Police Station Bakewar, a Swift Dzire car was looted by four armed assailants on a Scorpio. Around 4:30 AM, they were intercepted at Kachaura road under Police Station Civil lines by the police. When police parties chased them, the car collided with a tree, and criminals started firing at the police," he further said.

Dubey sustained injuries during the encounter and was pronounced dead when taken to the hospital. However, the other three managed to escape. One pistol, a double-barrel gun, and several cartridges have been recovered, he informed further.

Earlier today, Prabhat Mishra, also an aide of the main accused, died after being shot at by the police.

Mishra had sustained an injury on the leg after being shot at by the police and was rushed to a hospital before being pronounced dead.

Vikas Dubey is the main accused in the encounter that took place in Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants allegedly opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him. Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.

A search operation is currently underway to nab Dubey.

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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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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: A 10-month-old girl allegedly lost her life in an accident in West Delhi's Tilak Nagar area, the police said on Sunday.

"The incident took place when the baby was in the compound of the parking area at the ground floor of her residence and the driver of Mercedes Benz was reversing the car," a police official said.

The deceased was identified as Radhika, whose father Rakesh used to work as the security guard in the said residence.

The unfortunate incident occurred at around 3.30 p.m. in the afternoon following which the baby was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital where she was declared brought dead.

The owner of the said Mercedes Benz SUV is identified as Jassbir Singh who is into elevator business. At the time of the incident, his driver Akhilesh was driving the said vehicle.

"The offending vehicle has also been taken into possession and the FSL team is being summoned for inspection. Investigation in this matter is underway," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) West Delhi.

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