India in terror, Maoist pincer

New Delhi
Sept. 15: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said on Tuesday that infiltration from across the Line of Control and also via other routes such as Nepal, Bangladesh and the sea is “going up”.

Addressing the DGPs conference attended by the home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the national security advisor, Mr M.K. Narayanan, Mr Singh described as “worrisome” attempts by secessionist and militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir to make common cause with “outside elements”.

Terming left wing extremism (LWE) the “gravest internal security threat”, he said that despite all efforts, the level of violence in the Naxalite-affected states “continues to rise”.

He also said the situation in the North-Eastern part of the country is “far from comfortable” especially in Manipur and Assam, where current levels of violence were cause for concern.

Favouring a new-age policeman who is well trained, more professional and suitably empowered, he said Central and state governments need to take quick action to strengthen policing at the grassroots level. “The police station has to be the fulcrum around which this needs to take place,” he said.

Describing as “worrisome” increasing inflitration from across the LoC, the Prime Minister said, “Infiltration across the LoC and also via other routes such as Nepal, Bangladesh and the sea is going up. Encounters with armed militants have become more frequent in recent weeks and months.”

In a veiled reference to infiltrators from Pakistan, Mr Singh said that “secessionist and militant groups” within J&K along with “outside elements” have embarked on a series of protest movements with the apparent intention of creating an impression of widespread turmoil in the state.

“We must not and I repeat we must not allow such a situation to develop. It is imperative that these disruptive efforts are contained, controlled and effectively checked,” he said. Mr Singh said dealing with Maoists requires a “nuanced” strategy.”

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KVP tells Jagan to call off yatra

Hyderabad
Sept. 15: Mr K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, close friend of the late YSR, has reportedly urged the latter’s son, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, to drop his plan for a ‘yatra’ to console families of people who died of shock after hearing of his father’s death.

Mr Rao, who is lobbying hard to make Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy the successor of YSR, felt that this was not an opportune moment to take out a yatra. However, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy will be visiting Idupulapaya, Pulivendula and Chinthagundam, the crash site in Nallamalai Hills, by this weekend even as the political uncertainty over YSR’s successor continued in the state.

Mr Rao, who returned from Delhi after talks with the party high command, briefed ministers and MLAs of the Jagan camp at his residence in Banjara Hills. He apparently told them the brass had “overall” been positive to the request to make Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy the Chief Minister. Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy’s loyalists persuaded Mr Rao to continue his push with the high command.

He is likely to leave for Delhi on Wednesday. “Everything is left to Mrs Sonia Gandhi,” he said. “We hope the high command will take an appropriate decision in accordance with the prevailing public opinion.”

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Nurse in Gandhi infected by flu

Hyderabad

Sept. 15: A senior nurse working in the isolation ward of Gandhi Hospital was tested positive for swine flu on Tuesday.
According to sources, the nurse was affected due to lack of masks and gloves in the isolation wards, out patient departments, etc.
The nurse was examined when she developed flu symptoms a few days ago. She was allegedly exposed to the deadly virus while handling patients, a source said. Her blood samples were taken by the swine flu department and sent to the Institute of Preventive Medicine, the source added.
The superintendent of Gandhi hospital, Dr K. Ashok, said that he was not sure if the nurse was affected by swine flu or some other illness. “However, as a precautionary measure, we have given her the required dosage of Tamiflu,” he said.
On the lack of preventive measures for the nursing staff in the hospital, Dr Ashok said that all staff members were given protective gear.
Doctors and nurses handling samples are also provided full-fledged protective clothing so that they remain safe while handling the H1N1 positive patients and their samples, he said.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday eight more cases tested positive for swine flu by the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM). The state health secretary, Mr Ram Reddy, told this newspaper that more than 13 patients are being treated at the Chest Hospital. Among them no one is serious, and medical teams have already supplied Tamiflu capsules to relatives of the patients to keep the virus under control, he said.

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Another finance firm shuts shop in city

Hyderabad

Sept. 15: City Limouzines India Limited, a finance company, wound up business in the city on Tuesday by duping scores of customers. The quantum of the financial fraud is yet to be ascertained as the police is yet to verify the transaction books.
About 50 customers, who came to know of the fraud, rushed to the city branch office of the firm at Abids. On noticing the office was closed, they approached the Abids police station. They demanded that the company chairman, Mr Vikas Mehta, be arrested and their money returned to them.
The police booked a case against the company at around 8.30 pm under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC.
According to a complaint lodged with the Abids police, Mr Vikas and others floated the firm with its head office in Mumbai. It is alleged that the company was operating with a fake RBI licence since 2006. Its registered office is said to be located in Mumbai.
An investor from Golnaka, Mr M. Srinivas, said the company’s regional manager, Mr Wajid Khan, lured them into investing their money. The company had issued preference shares in the name of City Realcom Limited, and lured gullible investors by asking them to invest a minimum of Rs 1,30,000 with a promise that the investor would get a monthly return of Rs 7775 per Rs 1.30 lakh. The company paid interest every month for three years, but its cheques started bouncing since August.
Another victim of the firm, Mr Layk Ali, blamed the police for its failure to check the menace of fly-by-night firms. “The police punish ordinary motorists, but when it comes to financial fraud, they turn a blind eye. The Abids police does know that a fraud company is operating in its vicinity,” he alleged.

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Tirupati laddus get GI status

Tirupati/New Delhi

Sept. 15: The famous Tirupati laddu given as prasadam to lakhs of devotees at the Lord Venkateswara Temple for three centuries has been awarded geographical copyright.
The “geographical indication” status makes the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the renowned shrine, the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of the laddu.
It was in March 2008 that the TTD Trust Board submitted its application to the Geographical Indication Registry in Chennai. “The laddu is now protected under law and nobody can copy it,” said Mr G.L. Verma, assistant registrar of Trade Marks and GI in Chennai.
The high demand for the laddu from devotees had spawned a major black market trade in and around the temple in the last two decades. Fake laddus were sold all over. The TTD is hoping that the GI status would end this.
The mouth watering laddu is prepared using Besan flour, sugar, cashew nuts, cardamom, ghee, oil, sugar candy, raisins and almonds.
It comes in two sizes — the small one weighs about 174 grams, whereas the big ones weigh between 700 and 720 grams. About 2.5 lakh laddus are prepared daily in the temple. The laddu was priced just Rs 3 in 1989 but now sells at Rs 25 a piece.
Historians say that laddu prasadam was first given to devotees 300 years ago during the times of the Mahants at Tirumala.
But history alone cannot explain the allure of the laddu. It is the legend that sanctifies it. According to lore, the laddu was first prepared by Goddess Vakula Devi, mother of Lord Venkateswara, since it was the favorite dish of her son. Perhaps that is why devotees feel that extra savour in it.

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US, NATO plan to persuade Taliban leaders to switch loyalties

Adopting the 'sons of Iraq' strategy, the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan have initiated a plan to persuade middle and low level Taliban commanders to switch loyalties, a top American military leader has said.

The strategy called 'sons of Iraq' was first adopted by the British forces in Baghdad where many Iraqi insurgents were persuaded to join self-defence militias.

A similar kind of program had worked in Iraq and the US commanders believe that it would yield desired results in Afghanistan too, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told US law makers.

"There is a British general by the name of Graham Lamb who did this in Iraq and who is now working for General McChrystal and has initiated putting in place a program to focus on mid-level and lower-level fighters who would like to turn themselves in and do so in a way, they are both protected and that they have a future, so, in that regard, similar to Sons of Iraq," Mullen said.

The programme would involve Afghan leaders initially. "We're really at the beginning of right now. So we're not very far down that road," Mullen said in response to a question at a Congressional hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Congress-NCP seat-sharing talks remain inconclusive

A three-hour-long meeting to finalise the seat-sharing formula between Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections remained inconclusive late on Tuesday night, a Congress leader said.

Another meeting is slated on Wednesday to finalise the seat-sharing arrangements, the leader said.

This was the first and much-anticipated official round of talks between the two parties, held at 'Varsha', the official residence of Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Earlier, state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre held a meeting with A.K. Antony, the Congress general secretary in-charge of the state to discuss the modalities for the talks with the NCP.

NCP circles claimed that the two parties shall contest the Oct 13 elections jointly. The Congress-NCP alliance Democratic Front is ruling Maharashtra since 1999 and is hoping to do a hat-trick.

In the 2004 assembly polls, the Congress contested 157 of the 288 seats and the NCP fought 127 seats, leaving the rest to their allies. The NCP won 71 seats while the Congress got 69.

In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested 25 of the 48 seats in the state and won 17, while the NCP got only eight of the 21 seats it contested.

Several Congress leaders, including Heavy Industries Minister and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have been advocating that the party should go it alone in the assembly elections.

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Rahul’s train to Delhi stoned near Panipat

New Delhi

Sept. 15: Miscreants pelted stones at the Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi Express in which the AICC general secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi, was travelling back to New Delhi.
Carrying forward the austerity drive, Mr Gandhi travelled to Ludhiana in the Shatabdi Express chair car giving up the comforts of executive class he is entitled to.
Later on his way back, his train was stoned by miscreants on Tuesday evening near Gharaunda town near Panipat, in Haryana. No one was injured, officials said. The incident took place around 9.45 pm.
Mr Gandhi boarded the train in Ludhiana where he addressed the youth congress workers of Punjab.
Some window panes of three coaches — C1, C2 and C4 — were broken when some youth stoned the train. The Northern Railways spokesman said that 39-year-old Rahul was in the C3 bogie amid reports that Mr Gandhi was not perturbed. A probe has been ordered into the incident. According to reports, the stone-pelters were youth in the age of group of 18 to 25 years.
Earlier in the day, during the journey to Ludhiana, the Congress MP maintained the sanctity of the travel by not causing any inconvenience to his co-passengers.
He had custard and omelette for breakfast preferring them over the paranthas, curd, idli, vada and fruits offered by the catering staff.
Mr Gandhi refused special cutlery offered to him by the catering staff and did not accept the flowers presented to him at the station, terming it as the privilege of the executive class passengers.
The railway minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, was quick to appreciate the move. “It is a good thing. Rahul is a good boy,” she said.

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CBI told to take over Shopian case

New Delhi, Sept. 15: : Its reservations against taking over the case notwithstanding, the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) was on Tuesday asked by the Central government to investigate the alleged rape and murder of two women in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued a notification under Section five of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and the CBI will take over the case in a day or two,” CBI spokesman Harsh Bahal said on Tuesday.
CBI director Ashwani Kumar had said on Sunday that the agency had informed the government about its reservations on taking up the case but left the final decision to the government.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had on September 9 approached the Centre for ordering a CBI probe into the alleged rape and murder, which had sparked widespread street protests in Shopian for days together, after the Special Investigating Team of the state failed to make any breakthrough into the case.
A notification issued by the state requested for a CBI probe into death of Neelofar, 22, and Aasiya, 17 whose bodies were found on May 30.

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Mortars hit Baghdad Green Zone during Biden visit

Militants fired several mortars or rockets at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone government district on Tuesday shortly after US Vice President Joe Biden flew in, underlining the fragility of Iraq's security gains.

Iraqi police said one mortar round killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded five when it blasted an apartment block in the zone. Another two rounds landed near the sprawling US embassy compound, but did not hit it.

Police had no further reports of casualties.

Biden had met with the US ambassador, Chris Hill, and the senior US military commander, General Ray Odierno, just before the mortar strikes. He was safe in an undisclosed location, aides said, his whereabouts kept secret for security reasons.

A briefing for journalists by Hill and Odierno was interrupted by the sound of explosions. A loudspeaker at the embassy broadcast a warning to duck and take cover.

The US military said it knew of only one blast from incoming fire, which hit near the Green Zone but not inside it.

It was Biden's second trip to Iraq in three months, and the visit signaled that the Obama administration is anxious to resolve long-standing disputes between Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni Arab communities over land and oil that US officials fear could yet rip apart the country.

After his meeting with Hill and Odierno, Biden said a national election in January was the key to resolving those differences, which have in recent weeks been on display through public quarrelling over who was to blame for bomb attacks.

"I think a successful election is the necessary condition for those outstanding political questions to be resolved ... most of the parties ... feel the same way," Biden said.

Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq since the height of a wave of sectarian killings in 2006, due in part to a so-called "surge" of tens of thousands of U.S. troops, but the security gains have not been matched by much political progress.

"I don't think necessarily the result of a failed political process is civil war," Hill said. "The threat is the political process will not give the country sufficient cohesion to work on its economic issues and otherwise to become a strong and stable factor in the region."

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We aren't covering-up assault on Indians: OZ police

The police are denying that a deliberate decision was taken to minimise publicity over the brutal assault on four Indians at the weekend in this Australian city.

The Indians were attacked by a group outside a bar in Epping on Saturday and the attackers told the victims "You Indians, just go back to your country".

Acting Senior Sergeant Glenn Parker, who was one of the officers at the scene, says police acted swiftly, arresting four men and taking statements from the four victims.

He says there was no attempt on the part of police to play down the incident.

"It wasn't raised as an issue at that time, there has been no delay on the part of Victorian Police," Parker was quoted as saying by ABC News on Wednesday.

"As I say it has been from the word go, it has been an investigation, I guess it has just attracted the attention of the media in the last day or two."

He says there has been no attempt by police to minimise publicity about the incident.

"There's certainly no act to suppress what has taken place at all," he asserted.

He says racist violence is unusual in Epping.

The attack comes as Victoria's Premier John Brumby prepares to go on a mission to India to help repair Australia's reputation.

The victims say they were bashed by up to 70 people in a car park in High Street at Epping Saturday night.

But the police say there were only four or five offenders, although there were another 15 people making racist comments.

There have been a string of attacks on Indian students since May this year. The attacks have caused an uproar in India.

India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna was assured by Canberra that students from India would be taken care of.

The latest attack takes place after a brief lull in such incidents in which the victims maintain that the assaults were racially motivated.

The brother-in-law of two of the victims, Onkar Singh, told ABC's AM programme that his relatives have suffered serious injuries.

"Sukhdip got very badly injured in that, and Gurdeep has his jaw broken, and Mukhtair's (the uncle) shoulder is broken," he was quoted as saying.

"When the attack happened there was a lot of people, about 70 and they might have run away or something because they can all see the whole car park was full with them."

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Clues point to inside job in Yale killing

Clues increasingly pointed to an inside job on Monday in the slaying of a Yale graduate student whose body was found stuffed inside a wall five days after she vanished from a heavily secured lab building accessible only to university employees.

Police on Monday sought to calm fears on the Ivy League campus, saying the death of 24-year-old Annie Le was a targeted act but would not say why anyone would want to kill the young woman just days before she was to be married.

"We're not believing it's a random act," said officer Joe Avery, a police spokesman. No one else is in danger, he said, though he would not provide details other than to say that police believe no other students were involved. He also denied reports that police had a suspect in custody.

Several news organizations reported that police were interviewing a possible suspect who failed a polygraph test and has defensive wounds on his body. Avery denied those reports.

ABC News, WNBC-TV, The New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent cited anonymous sources in their reports. The Register and WNBC-TV also identify the possible suspect as a lab technician.

Yale officials said the building where Le worked would reopen under increased security. Still, some students worried about their safety.

"I'm not walking at nights by myself anymore," said student Natoya Peart, 21, of Jamaica. "It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."

Michael Vishnevetsky, 21, of New York, said he did not feel safe when he made a late trip to his lab Sunday in a different building. "It felt very different than how I usually felt," he said.

Twenty-year-old Muneeb Sultan said he's shocked that a killing could take place in a secure Yale building.

"It's a frightening idea that there's a murderer walking around on campus," said Sultan, a chemistry student.

Police found Le's body about 5 p.m. Sunday, the day she was to marry Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky, lovingly referred to on her Facebook page as "my best friend." The couple met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester and were eagerly awaiting their planned wedding on Long Island.

Police have said Widawsky is not a suspect and helped detectives in their investigation.

The building where the body was found is part of the university medical school complex about a mile from Yale's main campus. It is accessible to Yale personnel with identification cards. Some 75 video surveillance cameras monitor all doorways.

The body was found in the basement in the wall chase — a deep recess where utilities and cables run between floors. The basement houses rodents, mostly mice, used for scientific testing by multiple Yale researchers, said Robert Alpern, dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.

Le was part of a research team headed by her faculty adviser, Anton Bennett. According to its Web site, the Bennett Laboratory was involved in enzyme research that could have implications in cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. Bennett declined to comment Monday on the lab or Le's involvement with it.

Le's office was on the third floor of the five-story building, where authorities found her wallet, keys, money and purse.

Campus officials have said that the security network recorded Le entering the building by swiping her ID card about 10 am on Tuesday. She was never seen leaving.

Yale closed the building Monday so police could complete their investigation, according to a message sent to Yale students and staff. Scientists are being allowed in only to conduct essential research projects, and only under the supervision of a police officer.

Police activity continued at the crime scene early on Monday evening, as uniformed officers with police dogs and workers wearing white suits to protect them from hazardous materials went in and out of the building.

When the building reopens, there will be extra security both inside and outside, said Yale Secretary and Vice President Linda Lorimer.

Police are analyzing what they call "a large amount" of physical evidence.

A friend said on Monday that Le never showed signs of worry about her own personal safety at work, though she did express concerns about crime in New Haven in an article she wrote in February for the medical school's magazine.

"If she was concerned about (it) she would have said something to someone, and they would have known," Jennifer Simpson told CBS' "The Early Show." "And Jon (her fiance) would have known, her family would have known, friends would have known."

Simpson said Le, a pharmacology student from Placerville, Calif., was friendly to everyone.

"She was a people person," Simpson said. "She loved people. She loved life. We just can't imagine anybody wanting to harm Annie."

In the Sierra foothills community east of Sacramento where Le went to high school, she was seen as a high achiever who knew early on that she wanted a career in medicine.

In a Union Mine High School yearbook from 2003, Le said her long-term goal was to become a laboratory pathologist and said it would require about 12 years of higher education.

"I just hope that all that hard work is going to pay off and I'm really going to enjoy my job," she said.

No one answered the door Monday at the Widawskys' gray, ranch-style home in Huntington, N.Y.

"He is a very nice young man," next-door neighbor George Mayer said of Jonathan Widawsky, a 24-year-old seeking his doctorate in physics. "His family, they're all just wonderful people — very, very nice people."

The university held a candlelight vigil on Monday evening.

The death is the first killing at Yale since the unsolved December 1998 death of Yale student Suzanne Jovin. The popular 21-year-old senior was stabbed 17 times in New Haven's East Rock neighborhood, about 2 miles from campus.

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Technician in custody in Yale grad student slaying

Police and FBI agents searched the home of a Yale University animal research technician late on Tuesday and led him away in handcuffs to the cheers of neighbors in a search for evidence that might tie him to the slaying of a graduate student.

No charges were filed against 24-year-old Raymond Clark III in Middletown, but police took him into custody while searching for DNA and other physical evidence. Police said Clark would be released after they obtain evidence they need from him and his Middletown apartment.

Clark was escorted out of the apartment building in Middletown and into a silver car. Neighbors leaned over the apartment building's iron railings and cheered as police led him away.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis described Clark as a person of interest, not a suspect, in the death of 24-year-old Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a wall in a campus research building Sunday, the day she was to be married. He said police were hoping to compare DNA taken from Clark's hair, fingernails and saliva to more than 150 pieces of evidence collected from the crime scene. That evidence may also be compared at a state lab with DNA samples given voluntarily from other people with access to the crime scene.

"We're going to narrow this down," Lewis said. "We're going to do this as quickly as we can."

Police have collected more than 700 hours of video tape during the probe and sifted through computer records documenting who entered what parts of the research building where Le was found dead.

Investigators began staking out Clark's home on Monday, a day after they discovered Le's body hidden in the basement of a research building at Yale's medical school. She vanished Sept. 8.

Clark shares the apartment with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, whom he is engaged to marry in December 2011, according to the couple's wedding Web site.

"He seemed like a normal guy to me, no big deal," said Ivan Hernandez, 22, who lives directly above Clark and would often see him sitting on a bench outside their apartment building and smoking. "I thought he was nice, actually."

Neither the couple nor Clark's parents returned repeated telephone calls Tuesday.

Clark moved to Middletown from New Haven six months ago, where he shared an apartment with his girlfriend and three cats, according to former neighbor Taylor Goodwin, 16.

"I never really talked to him much," Goodwin said. "He was just some guy."

Police have said Clark is a lab technician at Yale. It's unclear how long he worked there and Clark's supervisors would not comment on Tuesday.

Le worked for a Yale laboratory that conducted experiments on mice, and investigators found her body stuffed in the basement wall of a facility that housed research animals. Clark works in the lab as a technician.

Authorities had been tightlipped since Le was reported missing, just a few days before her wedding day. Police say they have ruled out her fiancee, a Columbia University graduate student, as a suspect but have provided little additional information.

Officials had promised Tuesday to release an autopsy report that would shed light on exactly how Le died. But then prosecutors blocked release of the results out of concern that it could hinder the investigation.

Investigators usually have reasons for keeping information secret during a criminal probe, said David Zlotnick, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.

Secrecy helps police confront possible suspects with little-known evidence about a crime and makes it harder them to fabricate a cover story.

"Having that information secret or private helps the investigators know, first of all, what buttons to push on the person, and it makes sure they haven't tainted the investigation," Zlotnick said.

Le's body was found Sunday, the day she would have been married on New York's Long Island. Her remains had been crammed into a wall recess where utilities and cables run between floors.

The Le family issued a statement Tuesday through a family friend, the Rev. Dennis Smith, that thanked friends and the Yale community for their support during their grieving. The family also asked for privacy.

"The entire Yale community as well as our extended families and friends have been very supportive, helpful and caring," said Smith, speaking for the family. "Our loss would have been immeasurably more difficult to cope with without their support."

The secrecy surrounding the case has bred confusion in some quarters, and officials have repeatedly denied media reports.

"You guys made up the fact that we had somebody in custody, the media in general," New Haven police spokesman Joe Avery told reporters outside the police department Tuesday.

The lack of information also has led to some measure of fear at Yale, which last dealt with a homicide in 1998 — the sensational and still-unsolved stabbing death of 21-year-old Suzanne Jovin about 2 miles from campus.

Yale President Richard Levin was more forthcoming to Yale medical students, telling them Monday that police have narrowed the number of potential suspects to a small pool because building security systems recorded who entered the building and what times they entered.

Several news organizations have reported that police were interviewing a possible suspect who failed a polygraph test and had defensive wounds on his body. At least one reported Tuesday that it was the lab technician in Middletown.

Along the way, various media have reported that Le was stabbed, that police found her bloody clothes and that a professor was a prime suspect — virtually all claims unconfirmed by police or met by flat denials.

New Haven police said they would restrict information even more in coming days after an NBC producer was injured Tuesday as reporters outside the police department pushed to surround a spokesman during a briefing.

The building where Le's body is accessible to Yale personnel with identification cards. Some 75 video surveillance cameras monitor all doorways.

Her body was found in the basement, which houses rodents, mostly mice, used for scientific testing by multiple Yale researchers, Alpern said.

"That this horrible tragedy happened at all is incomprehensible," said Le's roommate, Natalie Powers. "That it happened to her, I think is infinitely more so. It seems completely senseless.

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Man arrested for murdering niece

New Delhi: A 22-year-old man was arrested in the national capital for allegedly bludgeoning his niece after the victim saw him with her mother in a compromising
position, police said here on Tuesday. Babu Mandal was caught on Monday, hours after the body of Rinku Mandal (10) was recovered from bushes in Neb Sarai locality. The
Mandal family and some relatives including the accused lived in a rented room in Neb Sarai. "Babu bore multiple scratches on his face, neck and body. Police got him
forensically examined to know the cause and time of the injuries which appeared to be caused by finger nails. After thorough questioning, he broke down and confessed to the
crime," the deputy commissioner of police (south), Mr H.G.S. Dhaliwal said. According to Mr Dhaliwal, Babu was having an affair with the victim's mother Ruma and she had seen the two in a compromising position a few nights ago. "Ruma left the scene on being seen by her daughter and Babu caught the girl and repeatedly requested her not to divulge the matter to her father. She refused and he then forcibly took her to bushes and bludgeoned her," he said. In order to mislead the police, Babu allegedly took off the underwear of the victim to give an impression of sexual assault as the motive behind the murder.

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Teacher held for raping Class III student

A tutor was on Tuesday arrested here on charges of raping a Class III student.
According to the police, one Sushant Swain, 26 was giving tuition to a girl student at a slum here. He allegedly outraged the modesty of the nine-year-old child in the morning when she was alone in her house.
The neighbours rushed to her house when she shrieked out in pain. The accused was overpowered by them and handed him over to the local police.
He was forwarded to the court which remaned him to judicial custody, inspector-in-charge of Nayapalli police station G.P.Das said.

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