Tag: police

Bihar police drive to stop mob violence

Source: thehindu.com

The Bihar police have launched a massive drive on social media and are conducting awareness programmes appealing to people to stay away from mob violence which has taken eight lives in the past two-weeks, mostly in Patna district. Over two dozen cases have reportedly been triggered by rumours of child lifting in past one month.

On Saturday, a man was beaten to death by a violent mob in Mohammadpur village under the Naubatpur police station in Patna district. The lynching took place on rumour that the man was a child lifter.

“As many as 43 people have been named and 150 are unidentified in the FIR…we have arrested 23 of those involved in the incident,” the officer-in-charge of the Naubatpur police station, Samrat Deepak Kumar, said.

He added that the local police have been appealing to people, while making announcement on loudspeakers, not to believe in such rumours.

Earlier, on August 3, two such incidents of mob violence took place in Rupaspur and Dhanarua villages.

Alarmed with the rising trends of mob violence over child-lifting rumours, the police headquarters has instructed all district police superintendents to launch a drive against such incidents and make people aware through social media and public interaction not to believe rumours.

‘Don’t believe rumours’

Patna Senior Superintended of Police Garima Mallik held public meetings in different locations in the capital and appealed to the people not to fall prey to such rumours. The Patna District Magistrate, Kumar Ravi, too has expressed concern over such incidents and asked people to remain vigilant about such rumour mongering.

In most of the incidents, the victims have been from weaker section of society. Apart from Patna, such incidents of mob lynching have also been reported from Kaimur and East Champaran districts. In Patna district, incidents of mob lynching were mainly reported from Sadisopur, Neora, Maner, Rupaspur, Fatuha and Naubatpur.

“Special drives have been launched to sensitise people against such rumours…special patrolling of police personnel too have been initiated in such rumour-prone areas”, State Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey told media persons on Saturday.

In 2018 as many as 19 incidents of mob lynching were reported from the State while in 2017 and 2016 the number of such incidents were 13 and 7 respectively.

Face recognition cameras to boost policing in Ranchi

Source: indiatoday.in

For long, Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi has been known as a safe hideout for criminals and Maoists on the run.

A rapidly growing city with a big population, coupled with understaffed police force and a poor surveillance mechanism, Ranchi has often seen in the past as a city where a criminal on the run would desire to be in.

Ranchi Police, however, has just made it difficult for the career criminals.

The police in Ranchi have just obtained advanced face recognition cameras (FRCs) to pick the known criminals and habitual offenders from city streets.

The police have uploaded the available photographs of the criminals in the database of the police control room and linked to the FRCs. With the cameras linked to the police database, it is expected to scan the faces in their respective fields of visions and send out an alert if and when a match is found on city roads.

The police are hopeful that these cameras will help them in both prevention and solving of criminal cases, besides augmenting its existing surveillance mechanism.

All FRCs have been attached to separate network video recorders, a digital device fitted on the internet CCTV network. The recorder will digitally record live image/video streams to a hard disk.

If an offender would cross through locations where the FRCs have been put up, an alert will be generated at police control room along with the location of the offender concerned. A police response team will be immediately tasked to trace the offender

Top police sources told India Today that while 16 FRCs have been installed at strategic locations in the city, more can be procured in times to come. Though the locations of these cameras, installed at a lower height to help the devices effectively recognise faces, have been kept a secret, it is understood that the locations are those from where criminals usually try to escape.

The FRCs’ locations have been kept a secret, as criminals would avoid a route if they come to know about precise installation sites. Each of the FRCs cost over Rs 40,000, but these have good lenses to have clear image quality. While the available photographs of criminals have already been uploaded, expansion of the database would be a “continuous process”.

The FRCs are in addition to the Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras (APNRs) detection cameras, already installed in Ranchi.

These APNRs help cops prosecute traffic rule violaters. These APNR cameras can read number plates of violating vehicles, which technicians at the police control room can scan for the system to automatically generate challans to pay fines and sent them to the addresses of violators. Now with FRCs installed in Ranchi, the police believe its existing surveillance system, which largely depended on 500 CCTV cameras on important roads, will become more effective.

The Ranchi Police said that the FRC system, part of a system to boost real-time policing, will be integrated to the existing video surveillance systems and match faces in real-time against a watch list of individuals to trigger an alert.

Political storm brewing in Bihar over police seeking info on RSS, Sangh Parivar functionaries

Source: indiatoday.in

Aletter purportedly issued by the special branch of Bihar police with directions for collecting details about functionaries of the RSS and its affiliates has raised hackles of state BJP leaders and brought to fore the uneasiness in ties with ally JD(U).

Home department officials were tight-lipped about the veracity of the purported communication dated May 28 wherein a report on name, address, telephone number and occupation of district-level office bearers of 19 Sangh Parivar outfits had been sought by the special branch.

The recipients of the letter had been asked to submit their reports within a week.

State BJP leaders expressed surprise over the police move with BJP MLC Sachchidanand Rai saying the party must be careful of the intentions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who holds the home portfolio in the NDA government in Bihar.

BJP MLA and state vice-president Mithilesh Tiwari expressed surprise that police were involved in surveillance of activists of Sangh Parivar, “who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building”.

Tiwari, however, asserted the development will not have any bearing on BJP-JD(U) ties.

BJP MLC and party’s media cell national co-in charge Sanjay Mayukh said it would be better if the officials responsible for issuing such a communication come clean on the matter.

“I am astonished that the government is seeking such information. The government should have had the information by now since Sangh activists are not known to be secretive. They function in a transparent manner,” he remarked sarcastically.

Rai pointed to the timing of the letter. It was around the same time when Nitish Kumar refused to join Narendra Modi government at the Centre despite contesting the Lok Sabha polls as an NDA ally.

Kumar’s JD(U) was expected to have representation in the Union Cabinet. However, the Chief Minister who also heads the party decided otherwise stating that JD(U) was being offered a symbolic representation not commensurate with its strength in Parliament.

The chief minister has also remarked wryly on a couple of occasions thereafter that the BJP is actually not in need of allies for running its government at the centre and a mere symbolic representation is of no significance.

Notably, the BJP has 303 MPs in Lok Sabha, far in excess of 272 needed for a majority. In Bihar, it contested 17 seats and won all of these while the JD(U) which fought as many bagged 16.

“If information is being gathered as part of some routine procedure then I have no problems. But if it was being done with any ulterior motive, then I have strong objections.

“I am unable to understand why the police should keep a surveillance on activists of the Sangh Parivar, who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building,” Tiwari said.

He, however, noted that the parties have come together to develop Bihar and will continue to work in this direction.

Both parties have a mutual understanding that each would pursue its own ideology in a way that does not harm the other, he said.

Altogether 19 organisations have been named in the purported circular. These include RSS, its minorities cell Muslim Rashtriya Manch, students body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, labour organisation Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh besides Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, among others.

The letter also seeks information on right-wing Hindu Mahasabha though it is not an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Opposition RJD leaders latched onto the issue to take a swipe at the BJP and the JD(U).

Senior RJD leader Bhai Birendra said “this shows the imperfect alliance between NDA partners”.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar comprises JD(U), BJP and LJP.

Kumar had snapped 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 but returned to the NDA in 2017 after a short-lived alliance with arch-rival Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress.

NHRC notice to Bihar DGP over suicide of man in Nalanda police station

Source: pragativadi.com

New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued a notice to Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) over the suicide of a political party leader at Nalanda police station.

The commission took suo motu cognizance of media reports that a local leader of the ruling JD(U) in Bihar, who was detained by the Nalanda police in connection with a kidnapping case, allegedly hanged himself inside the station late on Thursday night.

The family of the leader, identified as Ganesh Ravidas, claimed that the police tortured him in custody. Three policemen were reportedly arrested in connection with the case.

The Commission has observed that the contents of the news report, if true amount to the gross violation of right to life of the victim. Accordingly, it has issued a notice to the Director-General of Police, Bihar calling for a detailed report on the matter within 6 weeks including Inquest Report, Post-mortem Report, Magisterial Enquiry Report and report of any other investigation conducted in the matter.

The incident reportedly occurred on 12.07.2019. The police authorities are also directed to explain as to why intimation in this regard has not been sent to the Commission within 24 hours of the occurrence of the incident.

According to the media reports, carried today on 15.7.2019, the victim was detained by the police in the night of 11.07.2019 in connection with allegations of the kidnapping of a girl residing in his village. He was suspected to have helped the girl elope. When police interrogation was on, the deceased went to use the washroom, which was outside the lock-up where he reportedly hanged himself from a window.

The news report further reveals that the victim was killed by the Police Station In-Charge and chowkidar. It is also stated that there were cut marks on the body of the deceased suggesting it to be a case of torture in police custody.

Headless, Naked Bodies Of 2 Children Found Buried In Jharkhand: Police

Source: ndtv.com

Latehar, Jharkhand: The headless and naked bodies of an 11-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were found in Jharkhand’s Latehar district today, the police said.

Latehar Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Jai Prakash Jha said the bodies, found buried under a pile of sand near a house, were exhumed. The heads have not been found.

The children had been missing since Wednesday and their families had searched the village for them but did not inform police, the SDO said.

The villagers noticed a part of a leg protruding from under a pile of sand this morning and they informed police.

A police team reached the spot, dug up the area and found the two naked bodies. There was a locked house nearby and the team broke into it to find bloodstains inside.

Villagers told reporters that several ”diyas’‘ (earthen lamps) and some grains were found near the bodies and they suspect the two were sacrificed. The owner of the house is on the run, the police said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Vipul Shukla said that it was merely a conjecture and more information will be revealed after the investigation is complete.

Bihar police crack whip on 41 officers for failure to implement prohibition

Source: indiatoday.in

he police department in Bihar has taken stern action against police officers across the state for their failure to implement prohibition. The department has directed that the officers who have failed to implement the order will not be made station house officers (SHO) for the next 10 years.

The police department has compiled the list of 41 erring police officers, who failed to implement prohibition in their respective areas over the last three years.

The penalised officers are posted across 16 districts of the state, including Patna, Muzaffarpur, Siwan and Katihar.

It may be mentioned that despite prohibition in the state, illegal liquor trade and smuggling has been flourishing. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on several occasions in the past had warned the police officers of implementing prohibition strictly or else they will not be posted as SHOs for the next 10 years.

The police headquarter, during inquiry, found that these guilty policemen had nexus with liquor mafia because of which illegal liquor was being manufactured and sold rampantly in the areas falling under their jurisdiction. Action has also been taken against the police officers for failing to check smuggling of liquor from neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Bihar police save man from being lynched by cow vigilantes

Source: hindustantimes.com

Police in Bihar’s Bhabua town, 200 km Southwest of the capital Patna saved a truck driver, who was carrying animal bones in his vehicle, from being lynched by cow vigilantes on Wednesday evening, officials said.

The incident happened at 8 pm on Wednesday on the western outskirts of Bhabua when at least 100 vigilantes chased the truck on motorcycles alleging the driver was transporting beef and cow skin in his truck. The truck had started from Babura village in Bhabua district and was bound for Gujarat.

The mob was led by Uttam Patel, a self-styled state president of the youth wing of Hindu Samaj, police said. The men dragged the driver out of the truck, held him captive and assaulted him at a place just a few hundred yards from the residence of the superintendent of police (SP), they said.

The driver told the mob he was carrying animal bones in his truck but the men did not stop their assault. They also damaged the truck.

“A police team rushed to the spot within a few minutes and rescued the driver from being lynched,” SP Dilnawaz Ahmad said.

Uttam Patel and his supporters opposed the police action and asked them to hand over the driver to them. They threatened the police officer that he would be removed from service and would have to face dire consequences.

Additional police force and riot control vehicles were rushed from police lines under sub-divisional police officer Ajay Prasad as the situation worsened. Patel was later arrested.

Patel and about 60 of his supporters were booked for the attack on the driver, threatening police and obstructing government officers on duty. Patel and the driver were sent to jail on Thursday.

Police found animal bones loaded on the truck and seized it. The driver Abu Hasan, a resident of Majhwaliya village of Chapra district, could not show documents for the transportation of the bones.

However, the man who had hired the truck for transporting the bones to a factory in Gujarat appeared on Thursday evening and showed a valid license issued by the government for the purpose, SP Ahmad said.

Police said Patel is involved in 11 cases of extortion, theft and communal violence in the district and police had also taken action against him under Bihar Crime Control Act.

He was earlier arrested and sent to jail on December 7, 2018, when he had caught a man with beef at Bhabua and blocked the road demanding a check on illegal slaughterhouses at Babura, a village adjacent to the district headquarters town, SP Ahmad said.

Schoolgirl cycling back home gang raped in Bihar

Source: gulfnews.com

Patna: A grade 12 girl was dragged by youths into a car, gang raped in the moving vehicle and then thrown along a road in Bihar.

The police have arrested one person but four others are absconding.

The incident took place in Saran, the Lok Sabha constituency of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Saran is a north Bihar district around 80km from Patna, the capital city of Bihar.

Police said the 17-year-old was returning home after school on her bicycle on Friday afternoon when the youths kidnapped her. She had gone to school to receive her grade 12 mark sheet and other documents for admission in higher classes.

After the kidnapping, the youths drove the car around the locality and raped her until she lost consciousness. According to the victim, five men were in the car. After committing the crime, they threw her along the road and fled the scene.

Late in the evening, villagers noticed the unconscious girl on the road with her school documents by her side. They called up her father using a contact number written on the school documents. The victim was then admitted to hospital where her condition is said to be critical.

“We have arrested one person based on the information provided by the victim while raids are already on to nab the other absconding accused persons,” the local Saran district superintendent of police Hari Kishore Rai told the media on Sunday.

The opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal slammed the state government for the fast-deteriorating law and order situation in the state. “This is one more example of worsening law and order in Bihar,” RJD spokesperson Mirtunjay Tiwary said.

Last week, three incidents of gang rapes were reported from various parts of the state.

In one case from the Sitamarhi district, two sisters were kidnapped from outside their home in the night and allegedly gang raped by eight men.

After the incident invited wide outrage, former parliamentarian Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, announced a cash reward of Rs100,000 (Dh5,316) to anyone who kills the rapists.

“If the government can punish the rapists, the society too holds the right to teach a lesson to the outlaws,” Yadav told the media after meeting the two girls last week.

According to an official report, more than 6,200 incidents of rape have been reported in the past five years of the ruling Nitish Kumar government in the state. This year, as many as 353 cases of rape have been reported until March, indicating at least four girls are raped every day in Bihar.

Bhima Koregaon case: Pune police raid activist Fr. Stan Swamy’s Ranchi home

Source: thehindu.com

A Pune police team on Wednesday searched the residence of human rights activist Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi in connection with the Bhima Koregaon–Elgaar Parishad case and for his alleged Maoist links. This was the second time the city police raided his house in Ranchi’s Namkum area.

While electronic devices, including a hard disk and some other materials, were seized, the 83-year-old activist was not taken into custody. 

The Pune police were assisted by the Ranchi police in the search that lasted nearly three hours, said sources.

Ashutosh Sekhar, Superintendent of Police, Ranchi (Rural), told The Hindu, “The search began after 7 a.m. and lasted nearly two-and-a-half to three hours. The Maharashtra police team took some electronic material and some documents. They will examine this material and decide on the future course of action.” 

The previous raid

Raids were conducted by the police at Fr. Swamy’s residence on August 28 last along with that of six other academics and activists known for their dissentious views against the powers that be.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Swargate division) Shivaji Pawar, the investigating officer in the case, told The Hindu that the police seized some electronic devices and other material from Fr. Swamy’s house. “We have not taken him into custody. We conducted this operation for gathering more evidence as a part of the ongoing investigation in the case. The materials seized will be sent for probe,” he said.

Fr. Swamy runs a school for Adivasi children and a technical training institute in his residential premises. A vocal critic of the Jharkhand government, he is known for his work among the tribal people of the State through his NGO, Bagaicha.

In 2016, he released an expose following a Jharkhand undertrials’ study, which showed that an overwhelming majority of the tribal people languishing in jails were falsely implicated and arrested for daring to protest against the violation of their constitutional and human rights.

On August 28 last, the houses of activists Sudha Bharadwaj, P. Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde were raided, along with that of Fr. Swamy as part of the second crackdown by the Pune police on alleged ‘Maoist sympathisers’ as part of their investigation into the Bhima-Koregaon clashes.

Four of them, including Ms. Bharadwaj, Mr. Rao, Mr. Gonsalves and Mr. Ferreira are now lodged in the city’s Yerwada Jail. 

Last year’s crackdown

On June 6 last year, the city police, in its first nationwide crackdown in the case, arrested five activists, including Dalit publisher Sudhir Dhawale, advocate Surendra Gadling, Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen and activists Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson for their alleged links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and their roles in the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ and the Bhima-Koregaon clashes.

Two charge sheets have been filed against a total 23 accused in the case on a number of counts, including for alleged Maoist links, veering youths towards Maoism and attempting to destabilise the State. The first charge sheet, a 5,160 page indictment, was filed in November 2018 and the second in February last.

Jharkhand: Two Days After Reported Missing, A Journalist And Two Others Found In Police Custody

Source: thelogicalindian.com

Three people Rupesh Kumar Singh, 33, a social activist and independent journalist; Mithilesh Kumar Singh, 45, social activist and lawyer at Ramgarh Civil Court; Singh’s driver Mohammad Kalam, 42, were arrested allegedly with explosives from Dobhi More at NH-2, near Sherghati, around 30 km from Gaya, according to a Prabhat Khabar, a local newspaper, reported on June 7.

The same day, on which the details of their arrests published in the local newspaper, a unit of Bihar Police raided the house of Rupesh in Ramgarh and Bokaro and seized his laptop, mobile phone and “Naxal literature,” reported Newslaundry. However, the writing which was being referred to as “Naxal literature”, was nothing but a few articles written by Rupesh in Laal Mati, a magazine in which he is an editor.

While searching the house, the police were not able to provide any warrant when asked for the same. “I kept asking them for a copy of the search warrant, but they didn’t produce any. They took away his laptop, a few books on Lenin, Marx and other ideological stuff,” said Ipsa Shatakshi, Rupesh’s wife to Newslaundry.

The Case

On May 4, all three persons went missing while they were on their way to Mithilesh’s ancestral village in Aurangabad from Ramgarh. The same day, Mithilesh’s family lodged a missing person complaint at the Ramgarh police station. However, the report was filed the next day.

Two days later, around 1 pm on June 6, Mithilesh called Rupesh’s brother to inform that Rupesh was fine and they were on their way back to Ramgarh. But the call got disconnected before Rupesh’s brother could further ask anything. “We immediately rushed to Ramgarh police station and informed them about the call. At the same time, we were also concerned about not bothering police too much, but just wanted to keep them updated,” said Ipsa.

The same day, on June 6, Gaya Assistant Superintendent of Police (Naxal) Navin Kumar Singh and Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravish Kumar held a joint press conference with three accused (masked faces) in the background.

“We were tipped off that an explosive-laden four-wheeler was heading towards Chhakarbandha in Dumaria. Subsequently, we beefed up the security along NH-2 and started checking the vehicles approaching Chhakarbandha,” said Ravish.

The police officials stated that the accused were carrying the explosives. They further said that Rupesh primarily supplies explosives to Maoists. The accused have been charged under Sections 414 and 120B of the India Penal Code, along with other sections under the Explosive Substances Act.

Ipsa, rubbishing all the charges levelled against Rupesh, told Newslaundry, “Rupesh always used to say that when you stand for the causes of poor and the marginalised, the establishment will try to crush you. That’s exactly what happened today. He has been arrested for working on Dalit and tribal issues. There is not an iota of doubt that the police is trying to implicate him in a false case.”

At the moment the accusations are one-sided, as local journalists were not allowed to talk to the accused and had to rely on information provided by government officials. “We requested police officials to let us talk to the accused, but they never agree,” a local journalist said, on condition of anonymity.