Caught on camera: Arrested IPS?officer roams free

April 30, 2013
Ahmedabad, Apr 30: An accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and senior Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian courted controversy yet again when on Tuesday a local news channel caught him on tape moving around without a police escort and spending a night at home, while he was supposed to be in judicial custody.

cameraPandian, a 1996 batch suspended IPS officer, was arrested in 2007 for his alleged involvement in the fake encounter case.

About six months ago he was shifted to Mumbai jail after the Supreme Court directed that the trial of the case be held outside Gujarat. On Sunday evening, Pandian had arrived in Ahmedabad for a hearing in another fake encounter case of Tulsiram Prajapati.

Crew of local news channel caught him taking a private car from the railway station and moving to the government circuit house where he was supposed to be officially put up for the night. However, from the circuit house, Pandian was caught on tape taking the same private car and moving towards his home in the Prahladnagar area.

The officer ostensibly spent the night at his home. On Monday morning when he left his home and took the same private car, he was intercepted by the television crew. The officer panicked and fled from the spot. He was seen later at the local court with the police escort. Though there have been allegations in the past that police officers arrested in fake encounter cases were being given “VIP” treatment, this is for the first time such an act has been caught on tape.

The incident comes close on the heels of the CBI accusing the Gujarat government of shielding yet another fake encounter case accused. The bureau is expected to move the CBI?special court on Tuesday seeking an arrest warrant for senior IPS officer and ADG, State CID, P P Pande for his alleged involvement in the Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case. Earlier, a CBI court in Ahmedabad had rejected its plea for the arrest warrant.

The CBI had told the court that despite two summons, the officer had failed to turn up and now was evading the CBI. The investigating agency could also complain against the state government for shielding Pande.

The senior officer has been on sick leave since the time reports about his impending arrest started doing the rounds. The state government had claimed that the officer was on sick leave and it had no idea about his whereabouts.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Lucknow, Aug 2: Uttar Pradesh's cabinet minister for Technical Education Kamal Rani Varun succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Kamal Rani is the first minister in Uttar Pradesh to die after contracting coronavirus. She was 62.

On 18 July, the minister tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital.

She was later shifted to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the minister's death.

In a condolence message issued on Sunday, Adityanath said, "Kamal Rani Varun died on Sunday at around 9.30 am. She was an experienced and capable leader. She discharged her responsibilities with competence. She was a dedicated public representative, who was always working for the welfare of deprived and oppressed sections of the society."

Kamal Rani was the MLA from Ghatampur in Kanpur. She was also twice a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has cancelled his visit to Ayodhya scheduled for the day, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said on Sunday.

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News Network
February 3,2020

Mumbai, Feb 3: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose party severed ties with the BJP after the state elections, on Monday said that if somebody breaks a promise, "pain and anger is obvious".

"No, I did not get any shock," Thackeray said in an interview with Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana while talking about forming an alliance with NCP and Congress, and becoming the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

"I am a son of Shiv Sena Pramukh (Balasaheb Thackeray), several people tried to give a shock to me but they didn't succeed. This is a field where you have to accept in the beginning that there will be a bit pushing and pulling," Thackeray said.

He added that accepting the Chief Minister's post was not a shock for him and neither was it his "dream at any point of time".

"But I can say one thing for sure that I had decided to go to any level to fulfil the promise which I made to Balasaheb Thackeray. I want to further clear it that me becoming Chief Minister is not the fulfilling of the promise made to Shiv Sena Pramukh but it's just a step towards that. I will fulfil every promise which I made to my father," Uddhav Thackeray said.

"There are several types of shock. Did people like it or not, it is the important part. I have spoken on this issue (alliance with NCP and Congress) several times and even people have understood this. Making promises and keeping them are two different things. If someone breaks a promise, pain and anger is obvious," he added.

The Chief Minister said that he does not know if BJP "has come out their shock till now or not."

"But I have to say if they had kept their promise what would have happened, what a big deal had I asked for? Did I ask for stars and moon? I only asked for what was decided before Lok Sabha polls, when we decided seat distribution," he said.

He further said, "Maharashtra and the country are watching (who betrayed/shocked whom), I don't need to say much on this."

Soon after the Assembly election results, Shiv Sena demanded rotation of the chief minister's post and equal power-sharing in the state government, which was rejected by then ally BJP. The weeks of political stalemate led to the imposition of President's rule on November 13.

Firm on its demands, Sena, the second-largest party in the state, did not hesitate to cobble up with the ideological opponents -- NCP and Congress -- and was given the chief minister's post.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

Bhadohi, Feb 11: With just two days left for the State Budget Session, a widow from Uttar Pradesh''s Bhadohi district has accused BJP MLA Ravindranath Tripathi and six others of sexual harassment over the years, the police said.

The incident is likely to cause considerable embarrassment to the ruling Yogi Adityanath government.

Bhadohi Superintendent of Police (SP) Ram Badan Singh said: "The woman, whose husband died in 2007, met the BJP MLA Ravindranath Tripathi''s nephew in 2014. She said that she was physically exploited by him for many years on the pretext of marriage."

The complainant also said that the nephew then got her lodged in a Bhadohi hotel for about a month during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, "where she was raped by the MLA and his other family members".

The case has been handed over to the Additional Superintendent of Police for further investigations.

A case is yet to be registered.

The Uttar Pradesh Budget Session starts from Thursday.

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