Men dictated answers from the window, nobody stopped them

March 24, 2017

Mathura, Mar 24: "Spotters" on motorcycles are parked strategically every 500 metres or so on the road to an exam centre at Shyam Lal Inter College in Farah, Mathura district. Their job is to send out an alert to "embedded moles" if anyone suspicious approaches the test centres.

upexamA local contact has assured me that by the time I reach the school, a message would have been flashed and "everything there would be normal". I could just walk into the hall where students are taking the exams, no questions asked. He was right. There are parents, students and teachers, all milling around. As I walk into the centre, no one, including cops, thinks it necessary to stop me and demand to know who I am, though it has been a long time since I looked like a school student.

It's 7.50am on Thursday and Class X students are taking the Science exam. There is a teacher in the room. The students, who are sitting with their desks almost joined together, are busy writing.

Just then, a voice booms out from one of the windows. ''Pehla wala khatam ho gaya? Ab doosra likho (You've written the first answer? Now write the second one)." A cheating mafia man then patiently dictates one answer after another until he finishes the whole paper.

My next destination is Radha Gopal Inter College in Raya, where the scene is even more bizarre. Here, some parents are sitting beside their children and solving their papers in a concerted effort. Teachers stroll around, but it's as if the cheating is invisible to them. The students are talking loudly and dictating answers to each other. After a question is finished, someone trots up to a tout standing outside and prompts him to start the next answer. All this takes place right under the nose of college authorities and police.

According to sources, each of these students had paid anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 for "help" from the cheating mafia, also called "nakal mafia" locally. These "cheating packages" -- of Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 -- have been specially designed by the mafia to meet the needs of "all kinds of students".

Sources said while Rs 5,000 is charged from students who come and write their papers with the help of their own cheating material, Rs 10,000 is charged from students who opt for dictation of the correct answers. The highest package, of Rs 15,000, is for students who just come to mark their attendance and their papers are written by touts and their agents. Students sit together in groups according to the packages. There have been instances in the past when students, believing in their own merit, have refused to shell out money to the mafia and were threatened and beaten into submission.

Sadanand Gupta, SDM at Maant, admitted that this problem existed and blamed school authorities for it. He said the police was trying its best to stop this but the mafia always found ways to hoodwink them.

Mathura ADM A K Awasthi said so far 55 students have been caught for cheating and their copies marked out. He said the final decision on the fate of these kids would be taken by the education board.

District education officer, Mathura, Indra Prakash Singh said he has issued notice to 35 schools in Mathura, asking them to "give in writing" that cheating has not taken place at their centres. He said if he gets any evidence of cheating, such schools would be blacklisted for five years.

Back at Radha Gopal Inter College in the afternoon, the students have finished their exam and are coming out. One of the touts who dictated the answers asks a group, "Kaise kiya (How did you do)?" The kids giggle. "Bahut accha (very good). Thank you."

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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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Agencies
May 31,2020

Bareilly, May 31: The Bareilly couple who had made headlines in July last year when they eloped and apprehended a threat to their life from the girl's father who is a BJP MLA in UP, is back in the news.

Ajitesh, now son-in-law of BJP MLA Rajesh Mishra, and his friend were arrested on Saturday for allegedly thrashing a youth and snatching his cell phone after a minor road mishap in Prem Nagar area of Bareilly district.

Ajitesh is married to Sakshi, daughter of the MLA and the couple had eloped last year and got married.

According to police, the youth was on his way home after buying medicines for his friend's father when his bike hit Ajitesh's SUV. Ajitesh and his friend thrashed the youth and snatched his cell phone.

Police said Ajitesh and his friend Vaibhav Gangwar were booked under IPC section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and other relevant sections.

Both have been sent to jail.

The complainant Deepanshu Maheshwari said, "When I overtook Ajitesh's car, he chased and waylaid me in the middle of the road. Thereafter, he and his friend thrashed me and snatched my phone. SHO Balbir Singh and his team rescued me."

The SHO told reporters, "We checked CCTV footage and spoke to witnesses only to find that Ajitesh and his friend had thrashed the youth. A case was registered under relevant sections and both were sent to jail after being produced before a magistrate on Saturday. The youth has been admitted to a hospital and his condition is stable."

The BJP MLA, incidentally, had snapped all his ties with his daughter Sakshi after she eloped and married Ajitesh.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Mumbai, Feb 10: Ankita Pisudde, a resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, was critical after sustaining 40% burns on February 3 when she was set afire, allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on her way to college.

The 25-year-old woman lecturer who was set on fire by a stalker in Maharashtra’s Wardha district last week died at a hospital in Nagpur on Monday morning, a police official said.

Ankita Pisudde, resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, had been critical after sustaining 35 to 40% “grade III” burns on February 3 when she was set afire allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on way to her college, they said.

She was undergoing treatment at the Orange City Hospital & Research Centre here, located around 75 km from Wardha.

“Doctors at the hospital declared her dead at 6.55 a.m. today,” Hinganghat’s police inspector Satyaveer Bandiwar said.

The woman sustained deep burn injuries on scalp, face, right upper limb, left hand, upper back, neck and eyes along with severe inhalational injuries, the hospital said in a medical bulletin on Monday.

She died of “septicemic shock” after suffering from deep dermal burns along with severe inhalational injuries, respiratory distress and related complications, it said.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday, her oxygen levels deteriorated inspite of ventilator support, coupled with decreasing urine output and reduction in blood pressure, the hospital said.

As part of immediate resuscitation measures, medicines were escalated to maintain the blood pressure and all feasible steps were taken to improve the oxygen levels in blood, but the patient remained “extremely critical”, it said.

“Around 6.30 a.m., she had bradycardia and inspite of prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient could not be revived and was declared dead at 6.55 a.m.,” it said.

The probable cause of death was “septicemic shock”, the bulletin added.

During her treatment, she underwent tracheostomy (creating an opening in neck to place a tube into the windpipe to allow air to enter the lungs), burn dressings, debridement and escharotomies, the hospital informed.

Debridement is a medical procedure to remove dead, damaged or infected tissue, while escharotomy is a surgical procedure used to treat full-thickness (third-degree) circumferential burns.

The woman’s parents and uncle were kept informed about her deteriorating health condition and death, the hospital said, adding that the body was later handed over to police for postmortem and other formalities.

After the woman’s condition deteriorated, the hospital informed about her critical status to Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Wardha Guardian Minister Sunil Kedar, Nagpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar and Wardha Superintendent of Police Basavraj Teli.

Heavy security was deployed in Hinganghat to avoid any law and order problem following her death, the police said.

Several locals, mostly women and college students, took out a march in Wardha city last Thursday, demanding death penalty for the accused.

Home Minister Deshmukh visited the hospital on Tuesday and announced that the accused’s trial would be fast-tracked.

The State government last week flew Navi Mumbai-based National Burns Centre director Sunil Keswani to Nagpur to supervise the woman’s treatment.

It has also appointed well-known lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case.

According to the victim’s relatives, Nagrale, who was arrested within hours of the incident on February 3, had been harassing her for quite some time.

Nagrale and the woman were friends till two years ago when she severed ties with him due to his “irrational behaviour”, the police earlier said.

A special team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Trupti Jadhav will probe the case, the Wardha Police said last week.

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